National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot - Operations Center

National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot - Operations Center is sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF). This competition seeks to fund a single organization to establish the permanent operations infrastructure for the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot, aiming to provide AI compute access for researchers.

Driving Science Innovation with Advancing US Innovation in Artificial Intelligence The NAIRR Pilot aims to connect U.S. researchers and educators to computational, data, and training resources needed to advance AI research and research that employs AI.

Research projects supported View Resource Allocations States + DC & Puerto Rico represented View Resource Allocations Infrastructure & data demo projects View Demonstration Projects Community workshops (more scheduled) Learn more about NAIRR Pilot On September 1, 2026, the National Science Foundation announced the award for the NAIRR Operations Center to build on the success of the NAIRR Pilot.

At this time, all existing opportunities remain available on nairrpilot. org. Request access to deeper collaborations directly with select partner resources.

Start-Up Projects resources Request access to AI resources for start-up projects. Access high-performance computing platforms tailored for AI research. Request access to educational platforms (such as computational notebooks).

Browse curated datasets, pre-trained models, and additional tools for training and testing your AI systems. Become a Volunteer Reviewer The NAIRR Pilot relies on engaged volunteers to power the proposals review. Please apply if you're interested in contributing to this critical process.

Request a NAIRR Pilot Speaker Are you organizing a conference, workshop, webinar, or campus event and want to include a presentation about the NAIRR Pilot? We welcome invitations to speak about the program and how it supports AI research and education across the United States.

NAIRR Pilot Resources Accelerate UNT Research Team’s Breakthrough in AI-Driven Protein Function Prediction Defending the Data That Defends Us: How Machine Learning and AI Are Tracking the Hidden Impact of Public Research Infrastructure Mapping Every Drop: Creating a Digital Twin of America’s Water Cycle AI Tool Promises Faster, More Accurate Cervical Cancer Treatment Planning Breaking the GPU Bottleneck: How Distributed Computing is Expanding AI Training Unlocking the Language of the Sun: Surya and the New Era of Space Weather Forecasting Leveling the Playing Field of Geoscience Data with the Mindat Intelligent Platform Synthesizing Science: Slashing Molecular-Simulation Times Through the NAIRR Pilot Designing the Future of Energy: AI-Aided Discovery of High-Entropy Alloys Scaling Solutions for a Thirsty World: How NAIRR Is Training the Next Generation of Water Scientists Beyond the Lab: How the NAIRR Pilot is Helping Robots Navigate the Real World Powering the Nuclear Renaissance with AI Co-Pilots: How Texas A&M University is Leading the Way for Nuclear Energy with Generative AI NSF establishes operations center for the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource The NSF announced today it is establishing an Operations Center (OC) for the NAIRR led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, in collaboration with the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Working closely with the agency, NSF NAIRR-OC will serve as the operational backbone of NAIRR. NSF State & Regional Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs Webinar Series The National Science Foundation has just announced the NSF State and Regional Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs Webinar series taking place August 26-September 4.

State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs This new initiative will expand state and regional access to computing resources for researchers, students, and educators to help accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery. Up to 10 AI Infrastructure Hubs will be founded to pool regional AI-related computing resources, and will be encouraged to integrate with the existing NAIRR program.

To build a technical workforce highly skilled in scientific AI use, these infrastructure hubs will utilize partnerships with local and state governments, academic institutions, industry, and philanthropy. New NSF initiative unlocks dataset value for AI-enabled scientific discovery This new NSF investment aims to enable AI-driven scientific discovery and innovation in national priority areas by advancing community datasets.

The program focuses on increasing the value of existing scientific datasets to enable AI-driven insights and research. Projects may pursue such aims as novel methods for feature extraction, metadata generation and dataset integration, and data pipeline construction for automated AI analysis. Researchers are encouraged to leverage existing resources, including those from NAIRR and NSF data platforms.

2026 NAIRR Annual Meeting Proceedings and Report 2026 NAIRR Annual Meeting Proceedings and Report now available: NAIRR Conference Final Report Read the Full Story in Science Leadership, Partners, and Contributors The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) leads the NAIRR Pilot effort in collaboration with federal agency partners.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are leading development of a NAIRR Secure element of the pilot .

The following federal agency partners are presently participating and contributing resources to U.S. National Science Foundation Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency National Institute of Standards and Technology National Institutes of Health National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Department of Education U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs U.S. Food and Drug Administration U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Current non-governmental partners: AI2: Allen Institute for AI Amazon Web Services (AWS) Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Non-governmental partners