The White House AI Initiative Office announced on Dec. 17 the creation of an artificial intelligence (AI) public research portal to connect AI researchers with Federal resources and relevant grant-funding programs.
The portal, hosted on AI.gov, was created in partnership with Federal agencies and departments and the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development coordination office, according to a blog post by Director of the AI Initiative Office Lynn Parker.
“Our Nation’s AI innovation begins with the inspirational ideas of researchers from all across the country,” Parker wrote. “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 testbeds.”
“This portal is one of many tools and approaches for advancing the Nation’s leadership in AI research and development – the first goal of the National AI Initiative,” she added.
A major goal of the office is to make it easier for the uninitiated in AI research to know where to find resources and funding applications. The portal is also designed to cut down on the time tax of searching for these resources.
“Discovering available resources well-suited for AI research can demand a significant amount of time,” Parker wrote. “While experienced researchers know how to find these resources, those newer to the field often don’t know where to begin. … 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.”
Among the resources the portal contains are guides to navigating the Federal research funding process, a searchable directory of Federal AI grant programs, a repository of Federal AI testbeds, and sections for both data and computation resources.
