NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs 2026

The U.S. National Science Foundation posted solicitation NSF 26-513, State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs, on July 31, 2026. The program funds cooperative agreements that expand access to compute for AI enabled scientific discovery and train people to use it. The first full proposal deadline is November 4, 2026, at 5 p.m. in the submitting organization's local time.

NSF expects about 10 awards in each cycle, and only one award per state or multi state region. A typical proposal requests 5 years and a total budget between $4,000,000 and $12,000,000. About $100,000,000 is available for the program, within an anticipated range of $40,000,000 to $100,000,000. The award type is a cooperative agreement. Planning grants are also anticipated.

NSF does not pay for buying AI infrastructure. That includes computing, data, software, networking, storage, cloud services, and other AI systems. Consortia are expected to fund those resources through research institutions, industry, philanthropy, and state and local governments. NSF funding supports the hub's work to connect researchers and students to that infrastructure, including faculty training and workforce development.

Proposals may be submitted only by US institutions of higher education that are accredited and have a campus in the United States, and by US nonprofit non academic organizations tied to education or research, such as independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, and professional societies. There is no restriction on who may serve as principal investigator. Each organization may submit one proposal per deadline. A person may take part in only one proposal per deadline as PI, co PI, or senior personnel.

Letters of intent and preliminary proposals are not required. Submit a full proposal through Research.gov or Grants.gov. Later deadlines are November 3, 2027, and the first Wednesday in November each year after that.