The National Science Foundation – NSF 25-546 -NAIRR-OC, seeks proposals to establish a community-based organization that will be responsible for the foundational visioning, coordination, operations, and development activities in support of an integrated national infrastructure for AI research and education. The NAIRR is being developed in stages as a partnership between NSF, federal, and private sector partners. The NAIRR-OC will be responsible for day-to-day strategic leadership and technical implementation of NAIRR operations. The NAIRR will capitalize on the capabilities and successes of the NAIRR Pilot, while expanding the capabilities, scale, and integration to achieve its overarching goals. NAIRR-OC activities will include establishing appropriate security requirements for users, partners, and resources interacting with the NAIRR while emphasizing research integrity principles of openness, reciprocity, and transparency.  The NAIRR-OC will not be funded to carry out research projects itself or to acquire or operate physical hardware or other cyberinfrastructure resources supporting the project work of researchers and educators. However, it may operate ancillary supporting hardware or services in support of serving these resources to relevant communities. The NAIRR-OC will also not fund the running of competitions for selecting and funding resources that would be made available via the NAIRR.

This NAIRR Operations Center (NAIRR-OC) will be responsible for the following overarching goals and responsibilities:

• Organizational leadership: Establishing the operational framework, organizational management, and success metrics for the NAIRR and its successful operations according to the vision, goals, and requirements established by the NSF and other federal partners.

• Building NAIRR capabilities and community: Undertaking specific development activities in support of NAIRR stakeholders, including interfacing with partner organizations and resources, deploying a unified web portal, integrating data-focused and other resources into the NAIRR, and conducting outreach and community-building activities.

• Interfacing with Pilot Operations: Coordinating with existing NAIRR Pilot contributing partners and interfacing with the independently supported teams conducting NAIRR Pilot operational functions, while developing tailored plans to execute such functions via the NAIRR-OC in the future.

UD White Papers Due: 10/27/2025, 11:59 PM
Full Proposal Deadline: 02/04/2026, 5:00 PM

Link to FOA Here

Eligibility: Individuals with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as a Principal Investigator (PI) are invited to work with their organizations to develop an application. Individuals from underrepresented groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply. An individual may participate as PI, co-PI, or other Senior Personnel on one proposal for this competition.

Institutional Limit: An organization may submit only one (1) proposal. 

Application Information:  All UD limited submission white papers must use this template found on the Research Office limited submission webpage. Applications not adhering to this requirement will be returned without review.  

Review Criteria: Internal white papers will be reviewed based on the merit review criteria found in the solicitation.