[AISWorld] Announcing the Program Solicitation for National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes

[He, Wu]

The National Science Foundation today announced the creation of a new program that will significantly advance research in AI and accelerate the development of transformational, AI-powered innovation by allowing researchers to focus on larger-scale, longer-term research.

The National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program anticipates approximately $120 million in grants next year to fund planning grants and up to six research institutes in order to advance AI research and create national nexus points for universities, federal agencies, industries and nonprofits.

"Advances in AI are progressing rapidly and demonstrating the potential to transform our lives," said NSF Director France Córdova. "This landmark investment will further AI research and workforce development, allowing us to accelerate the development of transformational technologies and catalyze markets of the future."

"The National Science Foundation is at the cutting edge when it comes to this Administration's efforts to prioritize AI research and development. These institutes will advance our national strategy for U.S. leadership in AI, leverage important multisector R&D partnerships and support groundbreaking AI innovation for the benefit of the American people," said Michael Kratsios, Chief Technology Officer of the United States.

The program, led by NSF in partnership with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, has both planning and institute tracks. The planning track will support planning grants for up to two years and $500,000 to enable teams to develop collaborative plans and capacity for full institute operations. The institute track will support cooperative agreements of $16 million to $20 million for four to five years (up to $4 million per year) for the creation of AI Research Institutes in an initial set of high-priority areas:

  *   Trustworthy AI
  *   Foundations of Machine Learning
  *   AI-Driven Innovation in Agriculture and the Food System
  *   AI-Augmented Learning
  *   AI for Accelerating Molecular Synthesis and Manufacturing
  *   AI for Discovery in Physics

The AI Research Institutes program will support the advancement of multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder research on larger-scale, longer-time-horizon challenges in AI research than are supported in typical research grants.

See the press release:
https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=299329&org=NSF&from=news
and the program page:
https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505686

We believe National AI Research Institutes will be truly transformative for the US AI research ecosystem.  Grant proposals for the National AI Research Institutes program are due to NSF no later than Jan. 28, 2020, for Institute proposals and Jan. 30, 2020, for planning grant proposals.

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Wu He, PhD
Program Director, National Science Foundation
Associate Professor of Information Technology, Old Dominion University
Editor, Information Discovery and Delivery
2415 Eisenhower Avenue, E11319
Alexandria, VA 22314
Email: wuhe at nsf.gov
Telephone: 703-292-7593
Fax: 703-292-9044