Conference: Bringing Together the NAIRR Pilot Community: The 2026 Annual Meeting

Building on the success of the Inaugural National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot Meeting in 2025, Internet2 will convene the second NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting in March 2026. The NAIRR Pilot was launched as a collaborative effort led by the National Science Foundation with many federal agencies and non-governmental partners. The goals of the NAIRR Pilot are to explore and demonstrate approaches and solutions in preparation for an eventual full scale NAIRR, with emphasis on making computational, data, models, educational resources, and collaborative opportunities broadly available to researchers and educators to accelerate research and innovation on AI and using AI. As a national, member-driven organization that operates technology and regularly convenes stakeholders in support of research and education, Internet2 will again host the 2026 NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting. The 2026 NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting will convene over 600 participants over a 3.5-day event and bring together participating NAIRR Pilot researchers and educators, resource providers, students, and working groups to connect, exchange ideas, and lessons learned about NAIRR Pilot capabilities, plans, and outcomes. This event will highlight research and education advancements, resources and innovations from NAIRR Pilot contributors and users, and opportunities to explore NAIRR Pilot resources, tools and opportunities, impacts, challenges, and future possibilities. The meeting will also provide a venue for discussions on NAIRR Pilot lessons learned, opportunities to enhance innovation in AI in support of research and education, democratization of AI resources and tools, and ways of reaching new and emerging AI research and education communities. Ultimately, the 2026 Annual Meeting aims to strengthen the NAIRR Pilot and inform strategic next steps for NAIRR and the research and education community. 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.