The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is turning 125 this year! To celebrate, NIST is excited to invite you to an open house Friday, October 16th, 2026, from 3:00pm – 6:00pm at 325 Broadway in Boulder Colorado. Come learn the history of NIST's presence in Boulder and the amazing research occuring across the campus. There is a particlular focus to this event on how we keep time, along with displays and demos of NIST's science and history: learn about how NI

In August 2026, the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) brought government, industry and academic experts together in Boulder for ISART 2026, the International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies, to tackle a challenge that increasingly affects nearly every sector of the economy: how can we dramatically expand the effective capacity of the radio spectrum? Many Coloradans may not realize that this nationally important work has a home in Boulder. ITS is the scie

CU Boulder will host its eighth annual Research & Innovation Week, October 12 through 16, bringing together researchers, students, industry partners and the broader community to explore the research, facilities, talent and ideas emerging across one of Colorado’s largest research ecosystems. Organized by CU Boulder’s Research & Innovation Office (RIO), the week is designed not simply as a celebration of research, but as an opportunity to create collaborations, expose people to

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder is celebrating 50 years of transforming how scientists and the public understand Earth’s frozen regions. Founded in 1976 as a two-person, largely paper-based glaciology data center, NSIDC has grown to roughly 85 employees and now stewards more than 1,480 data sets supported by NASA, NOAA, the National Science Foundation and other partners. Its evolution—from microfilm and magnetic tape to sate

A 2-to-8-week weather forecast could change how entire industries make operational, financial, and risk decisions and researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are using AI to make that elusive window more attainable. This brilliant team is advancing CAMulator, a machine-learning emulator of the Community Atmosphere Model. The performance is striking: CAMulator can generate 480 simulated years per day - about 350× faster than CAM6. For real-time rese

The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) is pleased to announce that 27 local participants across the United States were recently selected for two new Energy to Communities (E2C) peer-learning cohorts, managed by NLR on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). E2C peer-learning cohorts launched two separate engagements in July. The first, “Leveraging Data for Modern Utility Grid Planning,” is a series designed for public utility grid planners and data managers to le

Based at NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory in Boulder, the Fire Weather Testbed is designed to move promising wildfire science into operational use faster. It brings researchers, National Weather Service forecasters, satellite specialists, fire managers, emergency officials and community partners together to test not only whether a new technology works, but whether it delivers information people can understand and use under pressure. Its work spans the entire fire cycle: from

America’s national parks protect irreplaceable landscapes, support gateway-community economies, and contain infrastructure that can be highly vulnerable to floods, landslides, destructive winds, heat, and winter hashtag#storms. Researchers at NSF NCAR - The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are using the Community Earth System Model to examine how events such as Glacier National Park’s devastating 2006 rain-on-snow flood could unfold under future weather conditi

Nearly 500,000 Comments! Federal Grant & Funding Rules: White House OMB Proposed Changes Dear CO-LABS members and friends, As we described in previous news, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register revising the government-wide Uniform Guidance for federal financial assistance and the deadline for comments was Monday, July 13, 2026. CO-LABS joined hundreds of organizations sharing information about this issue

Every year, tens of thousands of wildfires burn millions of acres in the United States, blanketing one community after another in smoke. The fire experts at the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and CU Boulder have compiled a list of go-to resources that provide up-to-date information on how the wildfires are progressing, the smoke transport in the atmosphere, and impacts on air quality. These efforts draw on many different sources of inform

CO-LABS is sharing this information so members and partners can review the proposal, determine whether it is relevant to their work, and decide whether to respond through their own appropriate channels. CO-LABS speaks to the value and practical impact of Colorado's federally funded research ecosystem; we do not speak on behalf of any individual member institution, laboratory, agency, university, or company. On May 29, 2026, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB

Self-driving cars use artificial intelligence (AI) to get from point A to point B without human drivers. Now, scientists at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) are using a similar concept to create “self-driving laboratories.” Using AI, NLR scientists are working to automate linked laboratory tasks to increase the speed, precision, and throughput of NLR’s materials research—ultimately aiming to accelerate the pace of scientific breakthroughs. In one case study, an