NAIRR Pilot resource allocations (web)

Citation

U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot. “NAIRR Pilot Resource Requests to Advance AI Research.” Call for proposals, open from May 6, 2024. Publication date not stated. https://nairrpilot.org/opportunities/allocations.

NSF, NAIRR Pilot. “Request Review and Matching.” Web page, date not stated. https://nairrpilot.org/opportunities/how-review-matching-works.

Both fetched 2026-10-15 by the agent. Read 2026-10-15.

Bottom line

• It has an eligibility check, independent peer review against six criteria, and a matching committee that assigns a resource.
• Awards run 12 months. Results “must be open and publishable”. Principal investigators (PIs) report at 1 month, 6 months and at the end.

Background

NSF leads the NAIRR Pilot with the Department of Energy (DOE) and private and non-profit partners. The pilot does not own one machine. It takes requests and matches each one to a resource that a partner contributes. The Research Resources call is one of several calls: Start-Up, Research, Educational and Deep Partnerships (site menu). This page covers the Research Resources call and the review steps.

Key claims

• Status: “This call for proposals will be open from May 6, 2024, until the end of the NAIRR Pilot program or until all resources have been committed to projects.” (Allocations page, introduction)
• Duration: “Projects will be awarded for twelve (12) months duration.” (Introduction; Proposal Submission and Review)
• Eligibility: “This call is open to meritorious proposals by US-based researchers and educators from US-based institutions including academic institutions (including graduate students with a support letter from a faculty advisor), non-profits, federal agencies or federally funded R&D centers, state, local, or tribal agencies, startups and small businesses with federal grants.” (Eligibility)
• “However, the individual resources available via this call may have differing eligibility rules.” (Eligibility)
• “Requests providing personal email addresses such as “.gmail.com” addresses will not be considered.” (Eligibility)
• Six focus areas, from “Advancing AI methods that enable scientific discovery” to “Training and educating the next generation AI-savvy workforce”. Other projects “may secondarily be considered for allocation.” (Focus Areas)
• Some resources need no proposal: “pre-trained models, datasets, and relevant platforms, may be accessible to researchers and educators without the need for a proposal.” (Available Resources)
• Openness: “Because of the strong public component of the NAIRR, all project results must be open and publishable.” (Expectations of Projects)
• Commercial use: “If a PI believes that a project will result in commercializable intellectual property (IP), the PI should discuss directly with the assigned resource provider”. (Expectations of Projects)
• Disclosure: “All supported projects will have the name of the principal investigator (PI), their affiliation, the project title, and project abstract posted on the NAIRR Pilot website.” (Expectations of Projects)
• Reporting: “Project PIs are expected to provide brief (2–3 paragraphs) project updates 1 month and 6 months into the project, and a final report (three pages) upon project completion.” (Expectations of Projects)
• Usage data: the pilot “may share this usage information, typically in aggregate form but potentially unfiltered, with funding agencies and researchers.” (Expectations of Projects)
• Use it or lose it: projects “not making full use of their allocations in a timely manner may be subject to reductions in their allocations in accordance with the NAIRR Pilot Allocation Management Policy”. (Expectations of Projects)
• Application: “Proposals require completing a form and uploading a three-page PDF proposal.” Applicants list related grants. “Proposals for research activities without merit-reviewed support will be accepted, but will be subject to additional review regarding the scientific merit of the work.” (Proposal Instructions)
• Review criteria (Proposal Evaluation):
  • “Alignment with the NAIRR Pilot focus areas”
  • “Project readiness and potential for near-term progress”
  • “Feasibility of the technical approach”
  • “Need for the computing, support, or other resources available in the NAIRR Pilot”
  • “Knowledge and experience of the proposing team related to the proposed work”
  • “Estimated resource requirements and justification”
• Matching: “proposals will be matched to the appropriate resource through matching committees. All partners, including non-governmental partners will have a representative on a relevant matching committee”. (Proposal Evaluation)
• An applicant can keep a proposal from company partners. It then picks “only government agency resources”. The page warns “this could limit the ability to match a proposal to resources.” (Proposal Evaluation)
• Cycle: “Proposals will be reviewed on an ongoing monthly cycle. Typically, requests submitted by the 15th of the month will be reviewed and have their outcome decided by the end of the following month.” (Proposal Submission and Review)
• Longer work: “Projects with longer-term timelines should complete a support request to be referred to existing proposal and allocation opportunities.” (Expectations of Projects)
• Review steps, for “~40-50 submissions that come in per month” (Review and Matching page):
  • “Submission”: “Resource request submitted via through NAIRR Pilot Portal.”
  • “Validation”: “Request checked for eligibility, completion, etc.”
  • “Independent peer review”: “Request evaluated against standard review criteria.”
  • “Matching committee”: “Committee includes agency and resource provider representatives.”
  • “Research notification”: “Researcher is notified and connected with their awarded resource.”

Evidence and method

These are the program’s own pages. They describe the rules, not the results. The allocation page links to proposal instructions, reporting guidance and the Allocation Management Policy.

Limits

• The pages do not state an allocation size. The size depends on the matched resource, and the Resource Catalog sets it.
• The pages do not state a renewal path. A project “intended to be completed within twelve (12) months” can ask for a referral.
• No fee appears.
• The pages do not state an acknowledgement line for publications.
• The Start-Up track (3 months) and the Allocation Management Policy are separate pages.
• The pages give no end date.