National AI Initiative Office Launches AI Researchers Portal 

Jan. 6, 2022 —  The National AI Initiative Office (NAIIO), part of The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), has established the AI Researchers Portal.

The portal will aid artificial intelligence researchers in finding and learning more about federal resources and funding programs. The Federal government presently offers 140 such research funding programs. The portal also gives access to government datasets and computing resources, AI testbeds, and more.

“This portal connects AI researchers to federal resources that can support their research, including data, computing, and testbeds, as well as AI-relevant grant funding programs,” NAIIO Director Lynne Parker said in a blog announcement.

Key tools of the AI Researchers Portal include:

• Navigating Federal Research Funding Processes – Information about the federal grant and funding processes for new researchers.
• AI Research Program Repository – A directory of active AI federal research programs that connects researchers with potential funding opportunities and collaborations.
• Data Resources – A list of Federal datasets and repositories, such as NIST’s Science Data Portal and NOAA’s Big Data program datasets.
• Computing Resources – Links to computing infrastructure programs for AI research (NSF’s CloudBank, XSEDE programs, and others).
• AI R&D Testbed Inventory – Information on testing resources including the 40 Federally-funded AL-related testbeds.

The AI Researchers Portal reflects the NAIIO’s mission to “serve as the central point of contact for technical and programmatic information exchange on activities related to the AI Initiative across Federal departments and agencies, industry, academia, nonprofit organizations, professional societies, State and tribal governments, and others.”

Accelerating the nation’s leadership in artificial intelligence R&D is one goal of the National AI Initiative, a bipartisan bill enacted in January 2021 to ready the US workforce for AI adoption across many economic and societal sectors. To that end, the AI Researchers Portal will allow researchers of all experience levels to connect with available programs and resources.

“Our Nation’s AI innovation begins with the inspirational ideas of researchers from all across the country. Advancing the state of the art in AI and related areas, however, requires more than a good idea. It needs supporting resources, including access to research funding, high quality datasets, computational infrastructure, and testbed,” said Parker. “We hope that the AI Researchers Portal will help U.S. researchers more easily navigate and connect with available resources that will make them more productive and successful in advancing the state of the art in AI and related fields.”

About the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office (NAIIO)

The National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 launched the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office (NAIIO) to lead the coordination of the Federal government’s activities through the National AI Initiative, including AI research, development, demonstration, and education and workforce development. Visit AI.gov for more information.

Source: National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office