AccelNet Implementation Phase 1: Inter-American Network of Networks of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics Challenges

This project establishes a new international research initiative that brings together scientists from the United States, Canada, and Latin America to collaborate on some of the most fundamental questions in the physical sciences. The focus is on Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD, which explores how matter forms and evolves. Understanding how quarks and gluons create the particles that make up atoms is central to answering big-picture questions about the nature of the universe and have a broad range of interdisciplinary applications. The Inter American Network of Networks of QCD Challenges, or IANN QCD, will strengthen partnerships across the Americas and also serve as a platform for future collaboration with scientists from other regions, including Europe and Asia. The project supports coordination with major research efforts such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Jefferson Lab, the future Electron Ion Collider, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In addition to advancing fundamental science, this initiative supports a broad educational mission. The project will provide early career researchers, including graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, with training in both core nuclear physics and widely applicable skills such as scientific computing, data analysis, machine learning, quantum information science, and accelerator science. Through international exchanges, collaborative research planning, and open educational resources, participants will gain experience working in global scientific teams and build the knowledge needed to contribute to future scientific and technological advances. The project will also emphasize participation from a wide range of networks, network partners, institutions and communities across the Americas. Activities will be designed to foster collaboration, openness, and accessibility across the network. All participants will be supported in contributing to a professional research environment guided by shared scientific goals, mutual respect, and responsible conduct of research, leveraging resources within the network. By connecting scientific communities and sharing knowledge across borders, this initiative strengthens the United States role in global science, promotes the progress of research, and helps prepare the next generation of researchers to succeed in a collaborative and rapidly evolving scientific landscape. This project is jointly funded by AccelNet and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.