Cloud LAB Act of 2025

The Cloud LAB Act of 2025 would require the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a nationwide cloud laboratory network and run a pilot program. The goal is to coordinate cloud laboratories—labs equipped with automated instruments and robots that can be controlled remotely—to generate high-quality biological data for training artificial intelligence models and to broaden researchers’ access to advanced lab capabilities. The bill creates a phased grant program (Phase II and Phase III) to fund new cloud laboratories, sets up an advisory board to guide development and ensure safeguards, and requires a comprehensive implementation plan and annual progress reporting to Congress. It also emphasizes data storage, public accessibility of nonproprietary data, equitable access, cybersecurity and biosecurity, and arrangements for possible intellectual property and collaboration with industry and academia. The act would sunset 12 years after enactment.