NAIRR-OC: Advancing AI Discovery and Innovation for the Nation

The National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) is a pioneering public-private initiative to catalyze a competitive national artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem for discovery and innovation. The NAIRR connects U.S. researchers and educators to the most advanced public and private-sector computational and data platforms, datasets, software, AI models, and technological expertise necessary to accelerate AI-driven discovery and innovation. The NAIRR Operations Center (NAIRR-OC) serves as the community-based support organization responsible for the day-to-day coordination, operations, and development activities that implement the NAIRR vision to accelerate AI innovation and national competitiveness. The NAIRR-OC delivers a production-scale capability that builds on the foundation of the NAIRR Pilot and decades of cyberinfrastructure leadership at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Texas Advanced Computing Center. Central to the project is an innovative framework that combines AI-enabled operations, data-informed decision-making, and the connective power of the nation’s multi-sector ecosystem spanning academic institutions, federal agencies, and private-sector partners to deliver scalable and adaptive national operations that continuously evolve as technologies and user needs change. The NAIRR-OC serves as the primary gateway through which a broad national community gains coordinated access to AI compute, data, models, and tools through flexible engagement pathways suited to any level of expertise. By addressing fragmentation across the AI ecosystem and integrating advanced resources with communication, support, and training, the NAIRR-OC enables AI-driven discovery at an unmatched speed and scale. This capability equips the nation with the infrastructure to embed AI into research, teaching, and workforce preparation while strengthening U.S. global competitiveness in the AI era. 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.