Researchers at the Center for Autonomy are partnering with teams across industry and academia to bring autonomy to more experiments at PNNL.

Microsoft Discovery

PNNL is partnering with Microsoft through Microsoft Discovery. The goal is to bring the power of Microsoft’s AI and high-performance computing capabilities to the science problems being solved at PNNL. The collaboration is using AI to dramatically accelerate the discovery of new energy storage materials through novel experimentation design and shrinking analysis of massive volumes of scientific data from years to weeks. In biosystems design, Microsoft Discovery is plugging directly into PNNL’s laboratory automation infrastructure to launch self-driving scientific workflows that autonomously design, run and fine-tune biological experiments in real time. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

PNNL has partnered with AWS to develop the fundamental data infrastructure needed for autonomous science and experimentation. Through this collaboration, PNNL deployed a data lakehouse that contains AI-ready data from instruments across the Laboratory, accessible to AI agents and autonomous systems. This work represents a key step in enabling autonomous scientific discovery at PNNL.

Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at PNNL are working together to advance two complementary microbial research capabilities: the already-built Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform and the Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (M2PC) now being designed. The anaerobic platform automates traditionally slow, manual experiments with oxygen-sensitive microbes, enabling more scalable, reproducible studies of how these organisms grow, consume resources, and produce compounds. Building on that collaboration, Ginkgo is also working with PNNL to design M2PC as a broader, high-throughput microbial phenotyping capability that will generate standardized, AI-ready datasets for discovery, modeling, and community use. Together, these efforts combine PNNL and EMSL’s expertise with Ginkgo’s capabilities in modular laboratory automation and bioengineering to accelerate research for energy, fuels, waste-to-value processes, and the U.S. bioeconomy.

Oregon State University 

PNNL and Oregon State University (OSU) have worked together for years to advance research, develop scientific talent, and address complex challenges. The two institutions recently signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen and expand their long-standing partnership. PNNL and OSU are advancing autonomous scientific laboratories by integrating robotics, AI, computer vision, simulation, human–robot interaction, and intelligent automation to create reusable technologies that enable safer, more capable, and more collaborative autonomous experimentation.