en.Wedoany.com Reported - The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched a $100 million initiative, the "NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Center Program," to establish AI infrastructure centers across states and multi-state regions, expanding access to AI computing, data, and supporting resources for researchers, students, and educators. The initiative comes amid budget cuts the NSF has faced as the Trump administration tightens government spending.

The program directly responds to core recommendations in the report "Science: A New Golden Age," issued by White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. The report calls for building infrastructure for AI-driven scientific discovery and supporting U.S. scientists by expanding access to world-class research and development (R&D) infrastructure. The administration's "FY 2028 R&D Priorities Memorandum," released alongside the report, designates investing in AI for science as a national mission while calling for expanded access to advanced computing and data infrastructure essential for frontier scientific discovery.

Under the program, the NSF will initially support up to 10 AI infrastructure centers, with one award per state or region. Each center will bring together research institutions, philanthropic organizations, state and local governments, and private-sector partners to build and operate scientific computing infrastructure for use by researchers, students, and educators in the region. Centers will also be required to collaborate with regional industry to align AI workforce development with local job market demands.

NSF's investment covers four areas: coordination of center consortia, AI infrastructure workforce development programs, AI-for-science faculty training initiatives, and curriculum development aimed at maximizing the use of computing resources to advance scientific discovery. The program will also fund training programs for faculty and educators, develop instructional materials, and connect outstanding research projects with AI infrastructure centers in their regions to equip students with skills in using computing, data, and software systems for scientific research.

Centers are encouraged to integrate with national-level resources such as the National AI Research Resource to achieve resource scaling, sharing, and dataset exchange, and to support the White House-led "Genesis Mission" national initiative. Centers may also participate in related NSF AI programs, such as "TechAccess: AI-Ready America," and collaborate with existing national organizations like the Campus Research Computing Consortium to promote workforce development.

The NSF anticipates that private-sector and philanthropic organizations, including NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Dell Technologies, Hangar, and the Secunda Innovation Fund, will support program participants by providing critical resources, expertise, and infrastructure to accelerate AI-driven research and innovation.