Charles R. Goulding and Preeti Sulibhavi underscore how Siemens’ US$5.1 billion acquisition of Dotmatics could redefine the role of 3D printing in academic research amid mounting NIH funding pressure.
Proposed funding reductions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have become a high-stakes flashpoint for the future of academic research. While national headlines focus on Johns Hopkins’ US$800 million shortfall and the multi-million-dollar grants going to Ivy League institutions, the reality is far broader: universities across the country receive billions in NIH grants, funding a wide range of research activities—many of which now rely on 3D printing.
For example, the University of Chicago currently holds more than 3,000 NIH-funded projects totaling over US$1 billion. A significant share of these efforts involve some form of additive manufacturing—whether printing cellular scaffolds, orthopedic models, microfluidic devices, or experimental drug delivery systems. These tools are not fringe anymore—they’re foundational.
As funding becomes more scrutinized, and as labs are pressed to do more with less, the race is on to optimize every aspect of R&D. That’s where the recent Siemens acquisition of Dotmatics—a key software player in life sciences—takes on outsized significance.
Siemens + Dotmatics: A New Era for Digital Science
Siemens AG’s US$5.1 billion purchase of Dotmatics, announced in April 2025, signals a decisive expansion into life sciences for the industrial giant. Dotmatics, headquartered in Boston, offers a suite of cloud-based tools used by over two million scientists worldwide, including platforms like GraphPad Prism, SnapGene, and Geneious. These tools enable researchers to analyze biological data, design molecular structures, and collaborate across disciplines.
But Siemens is not simply acquiring a popular software company—it’s extending its Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem into the life sciences pipeline. This integration positions Siemens to offer an end-to-end digital thread, from early-stage research to manufacturing, covering everything from automated lab workflows to data-driven drug design.
And that includes 3D printing.
While Dotmatics doesn’t manufacture printers or materials, its software plays a critical role in coordinating the use of digital tools, including additive manufacturing systems, inside the lab. This is especially valuable in research environments where bioprinters and precision prototyping tools are used to fabricate experimental platforms, organ-on-chip devices, or even personalized implants. We have covered Lila AI, another lab focused on AI and automation, previously on Fabbaloo.
Dotmatics’ Role in 3D Enabled Labs
One of Dotmatics’ most intriguing recent releases is Luma, a low-code, AI-enabled research platform designed to unify multimodal data from instruments, protocols, and experiments into clean, machine-readable datasets. For labs using 3D printing, this kind of integration is a game-changer.
Imagine a research group designing a new 3D printed scaffold for stem cell growth. With Luma, they can track every iteration of the scaffold design, correlate it with cell growth outcomes, integrate imaging data, and prepare that entire workflow for reproducibility or machine learning analysis. It transforms the lab from a one-off testing site into a scalable, data-rich R&D engine.
This kind of infrastructure is critical as more life science research groups bring 3D printers in-house—not just for prototyping, but for fabricating devices that interface with biology directly. Whether it’s microfluidic chips for cancer detection or porous structures for tissue engineering, these are high-stakes applications that demand both precision and traceability. Dotmatics provides that digital glue.
Automation and Accountability in a Tight-Funding Era
University research has long been led by visionary PhDs and graduate students, many of whom lack operational or managerial training. With NIH funds under pressure, universities are being asked not just to defend the science, but also to prove that it’s being conducted efficiently.
This puts a spotlight on lab automation. Researchers are increasingly expected to do more with smaller teams and tighter budgets—while maintaining or even increasing throughput and reproducibility. Platforms like Dotmatics make it possible to integrate liquid-handling robots, spectroscopy tools, and yes, 3D printers into coherent, automated workflows that reduce human error and boost repeatability.
For 3D printing specifically, that means faster design-test-learn cycles and more reliable experimental controls. A bioprinted scaffold printed on a Formlabs or CELLINK system isn’t just a physical object—it’s a data point, connected to dozens of variables: material, geometry, cell type, incubation conditions. Dotmatics helps track and make sense of those inputs, turning trial-and-error into data-driven optimization.
Why This Matters for the Additive Industry
The life sciences sector represents one of the most exciting growth frontiers for additive manufacturing. From drug delivery systems to patient-specific implants to experimental research devices, the applications are already here. But the bottleneck isn’t always the printer or the material—it’s the infrastructure around it.
Siemens’ acquisition of Dotmatics addresses exactly that. By integrating PLM, lab automation, and scientific data management, this partnership could streamline how digital fabrication technologies are deployed in research environments. It offers the connective tissue between experimental design, real-world production, and AI-driven analysis.
It also sends a clear signal: the future of research isn’t just high-tech—it’s hyper-integrated.
The Research & Development Tax Credit
The now permanent Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit is available for companies developing new or improved products, processes and/or software.
3D printing can help boost a company’s R&D Tax Credits. Wages for technical employees creating, testing and revising 3D printed prototypes are typically eligible expenses toward the R&D Tax Credit. Similarly, when used as a method of improving a process, time spent integrating 3D printing hardware and software can also be an eligible R&D expense. Lastly, when used for modeling and preproduction, the costs of filaments consumed during the development process may also be recovered.
Whether it is used for creating and testing prototypes or for final production, 3D printing is a great indicator that R&D Credit-eligible activities are taking place. Companies implementing this technology at any point should consider taking advantage of R&D Tax Credits.
Closing Thoughts
Whether NIH funding is cut, restored, or restructured, the expectations placed on university and industry research are changing. Projects will need to demonstrate not just novelty, but rigor, reproducibility, and efficiency. Labs that embrace digital tools like Dotmatics—and by extension, platforms like Siemens Xcelerator—will be better equipped to meet that challenge.
For the additive manufacturing community, that means focusing not just on what you can print, but on how that output integrates with the broader R&D ecosystem. The winners in this space won’t just be the ones with the best printers, but the ones who can plug those printers into smarter workflows.
And thanks to moves like this one from Siemens and Dotmatics, the infrastructure for doing exactly that is quickly taking shape.
