S. 3029 — DOE and NASA Interagency Research Coordination Act

This section authorizes the Secretary of Energy and NASA Administrator to conduct collaborative research and development activities—as practicable—to advance agency missions, including through competitive merit-review awards to federal agencies, national laboratories, institutions of higher education, and other entities. Such activities may encompass focus areas such as (1) propulsion systems (e.g., nuclear thermal propulsion and radioisotope power systems); (2) modeling, simulation, machine learning, and data analytics; (3) high energy physics, astrophysics, Earth and environmental sciences, and quantum information sciences (in accordance with 15 U.S.C. 8853 and 8854, which direct DOE quantum network infrastructure R&D); (4) radiation health effects; (5) space-based solar energy transmission; (6) Arctic science, wildfire mitigation, and space weather forecasting; (7) satellite data infrastructure; and (8) STEM workforce development. The section requires coordination via memoranda of understanding or interagency agreements; promotes data sharing with national laboratories and high-performance computing access; supports NASA access to DOE research infrastructure; and allows reimbursable or nonreimbursable agreements with other federal agencies. Finally, this section requires a joint report to specified congressional committees within two years of enactment detailing coordination activities, technical expansions, achievements, and future opportunities.