Research Priorities

The 2026 Research Priorities Statement

On 17 February 2026 the Secretary issued the 2026 Research Priorities Statement (DSC-ADM-2026-001), the Department’s first public document. It translates the founding charter into six research priorities, assigns each to a program and lead division, and sets the principles under which the work is to be conducted. The full statement is available in the publications library. This page summarizes it and reports progress.

Six research priorities

1. Understand systemic risk as a coupled problem. Build and validate an integrated model of interdependent civilizational systems, subject it to independent review, and publish periodic assessments with explicit uncertainty. (Integrated Systems Modeling Program)
2. Measure the dependence of critical systems on frontier computation. Develop repeatable evaluation methods for frontier computational systems and characterize how far energy, finance, logistics and communications have come to rely on them. (Frontier System Evaluation Program)
3. Establish the scientific foundations of cognitive preservation. Set standards for neural data acquisition, build benchmarks for emulation fidelity starting with small organisms, and develop an ethics framework and data preservation framework before any work at larger scale. (Neural Continuity Research Program)
4. Build durable research infrastructure. Bring dispersed computing and preservation facilities into service, engineered for decades of operation and for degraded conditions. (Continuity Infrastructure Initiative)
5. Preserve what must not be lost. Assess storage media and practices for century-scale retention and establish redundant, geographically separate archives. (Long-Duration Information Preservation Program)
6. Plan for horizons longer than institutions. Develop forecasting and decision methods suited to deep uncertainty and multi-decade horizons, and study how long-lived institutions can be designed. (Long-Term Forecasting Program)

Principles

The statement commits the Department to publish methods and limitations with every major result, to submit its central model to independent review before relying on it, to place all research involving human tissue or human data under the Research Ethics Review Board, and to make each phase of the Neural Continuity Research Program depend on review of the one before it.

Progress during 2026

Emphasis for FY2027

Fiscal year 2027 began on 1 October 2026. The six priorities are unchanged. Within them, the Department’s emphasis for the year is as follows.

• Model scrutiny. Respond in published form to the Model Review Panel’s review of ICSM v4.2, including the two dissenting opinions on calibration of the Governance and Social Cohesion module, and carry out the sensitivity studies needed before the next Outlook.
• Neural Data Preservation Framework. Review comments received by 15 December 2026 and publish a disposition of comments with a revised framework.
• NCRP Phase I. Extend the emulation benchmark suite and complete acquisition standards, keeping to the Phase I (2026–2028) scope. No phase transition is proposed in FY2027.
• Infrastructure. Bring Facility Alpha to full operating capability (planned Q3 FY2027), complete the Facility Bravo compute hall (planned mid-2027), and continue construction of the Facility Charlie main vault toward completion in 2028.
• Infrastructure dependence. Apply the frontier system evaluation framework to a wider set of infrastructure use cases and publish aggregate findings.
• Accountability. Publish the Department’s first annual report and a first corrections log (see Public Accountability).