The Office of Science (SC) is an established leader of the U.S. scientific discovery and innovation enterprise. Over the decades, SC investments and accomplishments in basic research and enabling research capabilities have provided the foundations for new technologies, businesses, and industries, making significant contributions to our nation’s economy, national security, and quality of life. 

SC leadership role accomplishes its mission and advances national goals by supporting:

  • The frontiers of science—exploring nature’s mysteries from the study of fundamental subatomic particles, atoms, and molecules that are the building blocks of the materials of our universe and everything in it to the DNA, proteins, and cells that are the building blocks of life. Each of the programs in SC supports research probing the most fundamental disciplinary questions.
  • The 21st Century tools of science—providing the nation’s researchers with 28 state-of-the-art national scientific user facilities - the most advanced tools of modern science - propelling the U.S. to the forefront of science, technology development and deployment through innovation.
  • Science for energy and the environment―paving the knowledge foundation to spur discoveries and innovations for advancing the Department’s mission in energy and environment. SC supports a wide range of funding from single principal investigators to large team-based activities to engage in fundamental research on energy production, conversion, storage, transmission, and use, and on our understanding of the earth systems. SC is an established leader of the U.S. scientific discovery and innovation enterprise. Over the decades, SC investments and accomplishments in basic research and enabling research capabilities have provided the foundations for new technologies, businesses, and industries, making significant contributions to our nation’s economy, national security, and quality of life.

Through its stewardship of National Laboratories, funding of university based investigators, and support for research conducted using SC’s world-class user facilities, the Office of Science is a critical component of the Nation’s discovery pipeline.