Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Computer and Network Systems, awarded a $386,710 project grant to the University of California, Davis on April 15, 2026, to organize and execute the Summit for AI Institutes Leadership (SAIL) 2026 conference. This three-day conference, scheduled for November 2-4, 2026, in San Diego, California, serves as the fifth annual program-wide gathering of the National AI Research Institutes Program. The award supports the delivery of a comprehensive conference experience that facilitates community building, knowledge exchange, and networking among AI institute leaders and key personnel across the federal government's flagship artificial intelligence research investment portfolio.

The grant deliverables encompass the full conference program, including plenary sessions, community-moderated panels, workshops, and specialized tracks addressing critical topics such as education and outreach, project management, computing infrastructure, communications, workforce development, and ethics. The conference is designed to serve AI institutes at various lifecycle stages—from newly awarded to fully established—thereby maximizing knowledge transfer and creating synergy across constituent institutes. This funding supports SAIL 2026 under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070), with the project completion date set for March 31, 2027.