What is the NAIRR?

AI holds the potential to accelerate discovery and innovation and help solve critical societal and global challenges. However, many researchers lack the necessary access to the AI resources needed to fully conduct their research activities and to train the next generation of researchers. The National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) is a concept for a shared national research infrastructure to bridge this gap by connecting U.S. researchers to responsible and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) resources, as well as the needed computational, data, software, training, and educational resources to advance research, discovery, and innovation. The aim is to ensure that AI resources and tools are equitably accessible to the broad research and education communities in a manner that advances trustworthy AI and protects privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

What is the NAIRR Pilot?

The purpose of the NAIRR Pilot is to demonstrate the NAIRR concept and advance its main goals, namely to: spur innovation, increase diversity of talent, improve capacity, and advance safe, secure, and trustworthy AI in research and society. The NAIRR Pilot aims to address researcher needs by increasing access to a diverse ensemble of AI-related infrastructure resources including computational capabilities, AI-ready datasets, pre-trained models, software systems and platforms. This is an iterative process, beginning with the initial launch of the NAIRR Pilot in January 2024. In its first Phase, the NAIRR Pilot is providing researchers and educators with:

1. The ability to apply for access to advanced computing.
2. The ability to provide feedback on use cases for the NAIRR Pilot by filling out a survey.
3. Access to a growing list of contributed AI-specific resources, such as pre-trained models, AI-ready datasets, and relevant platforms.

More background on the first phase of the NAIRR Pilot and engagement mechanisms for your research communities can be found at the following NSF webinar recording held February 21, 2024. The NAIRR Pilot will continue to bring together government-supported and non-governmental contributed resources in phases over a two year period to demonstrate the NAIRR concept and to deliver early capabilities to the U.S. research and education community.

What has informed the vision for the NAIRR and the NAIRR pilot?

The NAIRR Pilot is informed by an implementation plan for the NAIRR produced in January 2023 by a task force co-chaired by NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. As a first step toward realizing that vision, guided by President Biden’s Executive Order 14110 in October 2023 on Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI, NSF and other federal agencies are now collaborating on a Pilot implementation of the NAIRR over the next several years.

For more information about this effort, please visit the NSF-hosted NAIRR Pilot website. Questions can be sent to NAIRR_Pilot@nsf.gov