The U.S. Department of Energy announced Oct. 1 that it has awarded a new management and operating contract for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , the nation’s leading particle physics and accelerator laboratory, to Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC. The contract is for a five-year term commencing Jan. 1, 2025.

Led by the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association (URA) and two industrial partners, Longenecker & Associates and Amentum, who will provide additional management, safety and operational expertise, FermiForward will be taking over responsibilities from Fermi Research Alliance, LLC, another UChicago-URA affiliate that has co-managed the laboratory since 2006.

“Fermilab has an ambitious and compelling agenda for scientific discovery on the most fundamental questions concerning matter, energy, space and time,” said Paul Alivisatos, president of the University of Chicago and board chair of FermiForward. “We are thrilled that the Department of Energy has chosen our FermiForward team to bring support and governance to these groundbreaking efforts.”

Since its founding in 1967 when URA began as the management and operating contractor, Fermilab has sought to explore fundamental questions—from how the universe began to the nature of dark matter and dark energy. It is currently building and running multiple groundbreaking experiments, including the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment or DUNE , which will be the most powerful experiment in the world to understand the mysterious particles known as neutrinos.

A new vision

The FermiForward team brings together a strong history of collaboration with federal science programs as well as operational excellence and best practices from industry.

FermiForward has also built a coalition of several colleges and universities from the United States and Europe who will be deeply involved in Fermilab projects, helping to further Fermilab’s scientific vision and impact and opening new lines of access and collaboration. This includes 20 academic and science-focused institutions representing many of America’s leading research universities, key higher education partners in Illinois, and historically Black colleges and universities.

Fermilab, a 6,800-acre site located in Batavia, Illinois, collaborates with more than 50 countries around the world to unlock the mysteries of how our universe was born, how it has evolved over time, and the fundamental rules that govern it. The primary mission of the laboratory is particle physics experiments using world-leading accelerators—studying the smallest building blocks of matter using some of the largest and most complex machines in the world.