Autonomous Research Agents

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Overview

Autonomous research agents use language models to plan and carry out research tasks, from literature search and hypothesis generation to coding, experiments, analysis, and reporting. Common approaches include tool-using coding agents, teams of specialized agents, persistent memory, and training with supervised or reinforcement learning; execution harnesses and formal or domain-specific checks help constrain their work. Agents can perform well on bounded, executable tasks such as model optimization, code reproduction, and formal proof search, but open-ended research remains harder, especially when novelty or scientific validity is difficult to measure. A central challenge is ensuring that reported claims follow from reliable experiments and evidence, which motivates independent verification, held-out evaluation, provenance tracking, and continued human oversight.

Latest papers

CardsList

324 papers60 papers in the last four weeks, up 62% on the four weeks before. 0.3% of all new papers.

  1. Rhizome OS-1: Rhizome's Semi-Autonomous Operating System for Small Molecule Drug Discovery

    Apr 8, 2026Yiwen Wang, Gregory Sinenka, Xhuliano BraceDrug DiscoveryAutonomous Research Agents

    Rhizome Research Inc.

  2. Agent-Driven Corpus Linguistics: A Framework for Autonomous Linguistic Discovery

    Apr 8, 2026Jia Yu, Weiwei Yu, Pengfei Xiao +1Corpus LinguisticsAutonomous Research Agents

    Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China · Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

  3. Deep Researcher Agent: An Autonomous Framework for 24/7 Deep Learning Experimentation with Zero-Cost Monitoring

    Apr 7, 2026Xiangyue ZhangAutonomous Research AgentsAutonomous Experimentation

    The University of Tokyo

  4. AutoSOTA: An End-to-End Automated Research System for State-of-the-Art AI Model Discovery

    Apr 7, 2026Yu Li, Chenyang Shao, Xinyang Liu +13Autonomous ExperimentationAutonomous Research Agents

    Department of Electronic Engineering, BNRist, Tsinghua University · Zhongguancun Academy · Peking University +1

  5. OpenCLAW-P2P v7.0-P2PCLAW: Resilient Multi-Layer Persistence, Live Reference Verification, and Production-Scale Evaluation of Decentralized AI Peer Review v7.0 -- Mathematical Corrections & Ecosystem Developments Edition

    Apr 6, 2026Francisco Angulo de Lafuente, Teerth Sharma, Vladimir Veselov +3Automated Peer ReviewAutonomous Research Agents

    Independent AI Researcher & Science Fiction Writer, Madrid, Spain · Bachelor of Technology (AI), Manipal University Jaipur, India · Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (MIET), Russia +3

  6. Memory Intelligence Agent

    Apr 6, 2026Jingyang Qiao, Weicheng Meng, Yu Cheng +6Memory-Augmented Language Model AgentsAutonomous Research Agents

  7. MolClaw: An Autonomous Agent with Hierarchical Skills for Drug Molecule Evaluation, Screening, and Optimization

    Apr 2, 2026Lisheng Zhang, Lilong Wang, Xiangyu Sun +14Drug DiscoveryAutonomous Research Agents

    Peking University Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing, China · Shanghai AI Laboratory, Shanghai, China · Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China

  8. From Data to Theory: Autonomous Large Language Model Agents for Materials Science

    Apr 1, 2026Samuel Onimpa Alfred, Veera SundararaghavanLarge Language Model-Guided Scientific DiscoveryScientific Discovery

    Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

  9. Omni-SimpleMem: Autoresearch-Guided Discovery of Lifelong Multimodal Agent Memory

    Apr 1, 2026Jiaqi Liu, Zipeng Ling, Shi Qiu +9Agent MemoryMultimodal Memory

    UNC-Chapel Hill · University of Pennsylvania · University of California, Santa Cruz +2

  10. AlphaLab: Autonomous Multi-Agent Research Across Optimization Domains with Frontier LLMs

    Mar 31, 2026Brendan R. Hogan, Xiwen Chen, James T. Wilson +5Autonomous Research AgentsAutonomous Experimentation

    Morgan Stanley

  11. ASI-Evolve: AI Accelerates AI

    Mar 31, 2026Weixian Xu, Tiantian Mi, Yixiu Liu +6Autonomous Research AgentsAutomated Algorithm Discovery

    SJTU · SII · GAIR

  12. An Empirical Study of Multi-Agent Collaboration for Automated Research

    Mar 31, 2026Yang Shen, Zhenyi Yi, Ziyi Zhao +4Multi-Agent LLM SystemsMulti-Agent Collaboration

    University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia · Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China · Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen 518118, China +1

  13. Nomad: Autonomous Exploration and Discovery

    Mar 31, 2026Bokang Jia, Samta Kamboj, Satheesh Katipomu +3Autonomous Research AgentsAutonomous Scientific Discovery

    Inception, G42 · MBZUAI · G42

  14. Towards End-to-End Automation of AI Research

    Mar 31, 2026Yutaro Yamada, Robert Tjarko Lange, Cong Lu +5AI-Assisted Scientific ResearchAutonomous Scientific Discovery

    Sakana AI, Tokyo, Japan · University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada · Vector Institute, Toronto, Canada +1

  15. Mimosa Framework: Toward Evolving Multi-Agent Systems for Scientific Research

    Mar 30, 2026Martin Legrand, Tao Jiang, Matthieu Feraud +5Autonomous Research AgentsMulti-Agent Systems

    Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, ICN, Nice, France · Interdisciplinary Institute for Artificial Intelligence (3iA) Côte d’Azur, Sophia-Antipolis, France · Inria, Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, I3S, France

  16. TianJi:An autonomous AI meteorologist for discovering physical mechanisms in atmospheric science

    Mar 29, 2026Kaikai Zhang, Xiang Wang, Haoluo Zhao +4AI Agents for Scientific DiscoveryAutonomous Scientific Discovery

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China · State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management (CPRM), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China · College of Computer Science and Technology, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, Shandong, China

  17. Sci-Mind: Cognitively-Inspired Adversarial Debate for Autonomous Mathematical Modeling

    Mar 29, 2026Junhao Jia, Huangwei Chen, Ruiying Sun +4Autonomous Research AgentsLLM Mathematical Reasoning

    Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Accessible Perception and Intelligent Systems, College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, China · Hangzhou Dianzi University, China · Hangzhou Normal University, China

  18. Agent-Driven Autonomous Reinforcement Learning Research: Iterative Policy Improvement for Quadruped Locomotion

    Mar 28, 2026Nimesh Khandelwal, Shakti S. GuptaReinforcement LearningRobotic RL

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India

  19. Self-evolving AI agents for protein discovery and directed evolution

    Mar 28, 2026Yang Tan, Lingrong Zhang, Mingchen Li +5Autonomous Research AgentsSelf-Evolving Agents

    Shanghai National Center for Applied Mathematics (SJTU Center) & Institute of Natural Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China. · Shanghai Innovation Institute, Shanghai, 200231, China. · School of Computer Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China. +1

  20. AIRA_2: Overcoming Bottlenecks in AI Research Agents

    Mar 27, 2026Karen Hambardzumyan, Nicolas Baldwin, Edan Toledo +22Autonomous Research AgentsAI Agent Architecture

    FAIR at Meta · University College London · University of Oxford

  21. AI-Supervisor: Autonomous AI Research Supervision via a Persistent Research World Model

    Mar 25, 2026Yunbo LongAutonomous Research AgentsAI Agents for Scientific Discovery

  22. Bilevel Autoresearch: Meta-Autoresearching Itself

    Mar 24, 2026Yaonan Qu, Meng LuSelf-Improving AgentsAutonomous Research Agents

    Independent Researcher

  23. Closing the Auto-Research Loop: An AI Co-Scientist for Production Search Ranking

    Mar 23, 2026Liwei Wu, Cho-Jui HsiehAutonomous Research AgentsLearning to Rank

    Trip.com Group · UCLA

  24. Improving Coherence and Persistence in Agentic AI for System Optimization

    Mar 22, 2026Pantea Karimi, Kimia Noorbakhsh, Mohammad Alizadeh +1Long-Horizon LLM AgentsAutonomous Research Agents

    MIT Cambridge, USA

  25. TRACE: A Multi-Agent System for Autonomous Physical Reasoning for Seismology

    Mar 22, 2026Feng Liu, Xin Cui, Jian Xu +11Physical ReasoningAI Agents for Scientific Discovery

    School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. · Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Shanghai, China. · School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. +3

  26. AI Agents Can Already Autonomously Perform Experimental High Energy Physics

    Mar 20, 2026Eric A. Moreno, Samuel Bright-Thonney, Andrzej Novak +2Autonomous Research AgentsAI Agents for Scientific Discovery

    Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology · NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions · CERN

  27. EDM-ARS: A Domain-Specific Multi-Agent System for Automated Educational Data Mining Research

    Mar 18, 2026Chenguang Pan, Zhou Zhang, Weixuan Xiao +1Autonomous Research AgentsEducational Data Mining

    edmars.ai New York, NY, USA

  28. Competing with AI Scientists: Agent-Driven Approach to Astrophysics Research

    Mar 18, 2026Thomas Borrett, Licong Xu, Andy Nilipour +7Scientific Workflow AutomationAutonomous Research Agents

    Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK · Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK · Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK +4

  29. ML-AutoResearch: Training Machine Learning Research Agents with Automatically Generated Environments

    Mar 17, 2026Ziyang Cai, Amir Saeidi, Harkirat BehlAutonomous Research AgentsLLM Agent Training

    Arizona State University · Microsoft Research

  30. Nonstandard Errors in AI Agents

    Mar 17, 2026Ruijiang Gao, Steven Chong XiaoAI Agent ReliabilityAutonomous Research Agents

    Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas