mlsanityData to 13 Oct 2026

Scaling Scientific Discovery Environments for Turn-Level Agentic RL

arXiv 2607.28990 ↗First posted 31 Jul 2026cs.AIcited by 3

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Web, search, and research agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Large language model agents have shown promising capabilities in data-driven scientific discovery tasks, where an agent interacts with an execution environment and produces a statistical claim. Long-horizon scientific analysis remains constrained by the lack of process supervised environments over real-world scientific data. This paper introduces SciDisco, a scalable framework for training Scientific Discovery agents in process-verifiable environments. SciTh`eque compiles hypotheses, datasets, hidden evidence graphs, and verifiers into task environments where analytical progress can be checked during interaction. DAG-grounded trajectory synthesis uses these environments to construct verifier-filtered multi-turn demonstrations. DiscoPO then uses the environment as the source of training signal, assigning turn-level credit to actions that produce verifiable analytical evidence. Experiments show that SciDisco-14B reaches state-of-the-art on hypothesis-driven scientific data analysis benchmarks.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 13 Oct 2026). Placed in Web, search, and research agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 33 of its 56 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 31 Jul 2026.

Builds on

33 of 56 references.

Closest ancestors · 8

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025DeepAnalyze: Agentic Large Language Models for Autonomous Data Science19 Oct
  2. 2025DABstep: Data Agent Benchmark for Multi-step Reasoning30 Jun
  3. 2025MLE-Dojo: Interactive Environments for Empowering LLM Agents in Machine Learning Engineering12 May
  4. 2025DataSciBench: An LLM Agent Benchmark for Data Science19 Feb
  5. 2024MLE-bench: Evaluating Machine Learning Agents on Machine Learning Engineering9 Oct
  6. 2024ScienceAgentBench: Toward Rigorous Assessment of Language Agents for Data-Driven Scientific Discovery7 Oct
  7. 2024BLADE: Benchmarking Language Model Agents for Data-Driven Science19 Aug
  8. 2023WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agents25 Jul

Other references · 25

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,592
  2. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,091
  3. 2020Open Graph Benchmark: Datasets for Machine Learning on Graphscited by 2,157
  4. 2025Understanding R1-Zero-Like Training: A Critical Perspectivecited by 1,304
  5. 2023SGLang: Efficient Execution of Structured Language Model Programscited by 1,117
  6. 2014OpenML: networked science in machine learningcited by 524
  7. 2025Group-in-Group Policy Optimization for LLM Agent Trainingcited by 457
  8. 2025RAGEN: Understanding Self-Evolution in LLM Agents via Multi-Turn Reinforcement Learningcited by 367
  9. 2025ToolRL: Reward is All Tool Learning Needscited by 350
  10. 2021Monash Time Series Forecasting Archivecited by 261
  11. 2024DISCOVERYWORLD: A Virtual Environment for Developing and Evaluating Automated Scientific Discovery Agentscited by 93
  12. 2023LMRL Gym: Benchmarks for Multi-Turn Reinforcement Learning with Language Modelscited by 88
13 more
  1. 2025Reinforcing Multi-Turn Reasoning in LLM Agents via Fine-Grained Reward Structure and Credit Assignmentcited by 78
  2. 2023Data-Copilot: Bridging Billions of Data and Humans with Autonomous Workflowcited by 76
  3. 2024AutoKaggle: A Multi-Agent Framework for Autonomous Data Science Competitionscited by 70
  4. 2026Unifying Group-Relative and Self-Distillation Policy Optimization via Sample Routingcited by 66
  5. 2024Are LLMs Capable of Data-based Statistical and Causal Reasoning? Benchmarking Advanced Quantitative Reasoning with Datacited by 62
  6. 2025STeCa: Step-level Trajectory Calibration for LLM Agent Learningcited by 37
  7. 2026Intern-S1-Pro: Scientific Multimodal Foundation Model at Trillion Scalecited by 27
  8. 2024Are Large Language Models Good Statisticians?cited by 26
  9. 2026TIPS: Turn-Level Information-Potential Reward Shaping for Search-Augmented LLMscited by 24
  10. 2025AutoSDT: Scaling Data-Driven Discovery Tasks Toward Open Co-Scientistscited by 11
  11. 2026Synthetic Sandbox for Training Machine Learning Engineering Agentscited by 11
  12. 2026HISR: Hindsight Information Modulated Segmental Process Rewards For Multi-turn Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 7
  13. 2026TL-GRPO: Turn-Level RL for Reasoning-Guided Iterative Optimizationcited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 13 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026SciDataSailor: Deep Scientific Data Exploring
  2. 2026D3-Gym: Constructing Real-World Verifiable Environments for Data-Driven Discovery
  3. 2026AgentDiscover: Autonomous Discovery with Minimal Search Scaffolding
  4. 2026SciDER: Scientific Data-centric End-to-end Researcher
  5. 2025Autonomous Agents for Scientific Discovery: Orchestrating Scientists, Language, Code, and Physics
  6. 2026SciResearcher: Scaling Deep Research Agents for Frontier Scientific Reasoning
  7. 2026SciAgentGym: Benchmarking Multi-Step Scientific Tool-use in LLM Agents
  8. 2026FIRE-Bench: Evaluating AI Agents on the Rediscovery of Scientific Insights