NSF recently posted a cross-directorate Program Solicitation: NSF 26-512: Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery (AI Datasets).
AI technologies are rapidly developing, offering tools that enable and accelerate scientific discovery. However, trusted and accessible scientific datasets, curated with expertise across appropriate research communities, are necessary to train scientific models, create AI agents to test new hypotheses, and automate research workflows.
Building world-class, AI-ready scientific datasets is a national priority. Proposals in response to this solicitation should enable the use of existing scientific datasets (e.g. Ocean Observatories Initiative [OOI] datasets and that of other observing systems) in new AI-driven inquiries; facilitate interdisciplinary research; and/or enable investigations outside of the original scope of data collection or analysis.
All proposals should describe how they will enable data preparation and/or curation to increase the value of existing scientific datasets for use by AI data pipelines, automated analysis, and other AI-driven scientific inquiries. Full proposals are due by November 4, 2026. For more information on this active funding opportunity and complete solicitation details, please visit the NSF website: