미국 국립과학재단(NSF)은 NAIRR를 시범 테스트에서 완전 운영 모드로 공식 전환했습니다.
After more than two years in pilot mode, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the transition of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) into full operational status with the launch of the NAIRR-Operations Center (NAIRR-OC). The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, will lead management of the center, with supporting assistance from the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin.
The NAIRR Pilot program was initiated by the NSF in January 2024 to advance AI-driven scientific research across the nation’s 4,000 colleges and universities. Originally allocated an $800 million annual budget, the pilot ultimately supported more than 700 university projects and impacted 7,000 students across all 50 states. According to NSF Senior Advisor for Cyberinfrastructure Katie Antypas, who discussed this transition three months ago during a keynote address at the Trillion Parameter Consortium’s 2026 conference in Baltimore, Maryland, the pilot’s success prompted the Trump Administration to elevate NAIRR into a permanent, fully operational program.
To formalize this next phase, the NSF has awarded SDSC a $35 million grant to manage the NAIRR-OC over the next three years. The center will be directed by SDSC Director Frank Würthwein, who serves as principal investigator. He will be assisted by co-principal investigators Maytal Dahan, director of Advanced Computing Interfaces at TACC; Ashley Atkins, SDSC deputy director; Subhashini Sivagnanam, director of SDSC’s Cyberinfrastructure Solutions and Services; and Mahidhar Tatineni, director of SDSC’s User Services. Together, these two supercomputing centers will collaborate to meet NAIRR’s strategic objectives by 2030.
Key initiatives include coordinating funding among federal, private, and academic providers; integrating essential compute, data, AI, and software ecosystems; building and operating a unified national NAIRR portal; and delivering comprehensive user support, documentation, training, outreach, and engagement. The center will also establish a dedicated NAIRR user forum and feedback channels, oversee the transition of pilot functions into long-term national infrastructure, and identify systemic challenges that prevent researchers, educators, and students from fully engaging in AI-enabled discovery.
“The NAIRR-OC is an important step toward making advanced AI resources genuinely usable by researchers, educators and students across the country,” Würthwein stated. “By expanding access, we can enable ambitious ideas and discoveries that might otherwise remain out of reach.”
The partnership between UC San Diego and UT Austin leverages each institution’s distinct computational strengths. UCSD hosts the National Data Platform (NDP) and National Research Platform (NRP), while TACC directs the NSF Leadership-Class Computing Facility (NSF LCCF). Recently, TACC deployed Horizon, a new Dell PowerEdge cluster delivering 360 petaflops of high-performance computing capacity. Through the NAIRR-OC, both universities will also help coordinate three additional NSF initiatives: the NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs program, the NSF Integrated Data Systems and Services program, and the NSF Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery program.
According to the NSF, linking these regional assets, national data systems, and scientific datasets with the capabilities available through NAIRR “will create a stronger national ecosystem for AI-enabled scientific discovery.”