NSF Commits $90M to Three New Science & Technology Centers, Including $30M Human-Robot Co-Adaptation Center at UT Austin

NSF announced a $90M investment over five years to establish three new Science and Technology Centers (STCs), among them the Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation at UT Austin, valued at roughly $30M. The project brings together 39 researchers from six universities along with major industry partners, marking a significant federal bet on human-robot collaboration and foundational AI research.

Confirmed

• NSF will spend $90M over five years on three new STCs spanning AI, biotechnology, fusion energy and robotics (@yudapearl, @andreea7b)
• Each center is a five-year, $30M award ($6M per year), eligible to compete for a second five-year renewal (@andreea7b, @dhadfieldmenell)
• The Human and Robot Co-Adaptation center is based at UT Austin (@dhadfieldmenell, @andreea7b)
• It unites 39 researchers across six universities including MIT and Yale, with industry partners such as Amazon, NVIDIA and DeepMind (@PeterStoneTX, @EliasEskin)
• @andreea7b reports their team won the center award

Why it matters

• This is a major new round of foundational research funding under the NSF STC program, with each center at the $30M scale, signaling long-term federal commitment to the AI-robotics intersection
• The "co-adaptation" framing emphasizes bidirectional human-robot adaptation, including assistive applications, with a network spanning top universities and leading tech companies
• Turing Award winner Judea Pearl publicly amplified the news, indicating notable impact in the academic community

2026-08-27 ~ 2026-08-29 · 5 related posts

• [source] NSF invests $90M in three new Science and Technology Centers, including human-robot co-adaptation — yudapearl · 2026-08-27
• NSF Awards $30M to UT Austin for Center on Human-Robot Co-Adaptation — PeterStone_TX · 2026-08-28

3 near-duplicate retellings: andreea7b · dhadfieldmenell · EliasEskin