Conference: SAIL 2026: SUMMIT FOR AI INSTITUTES LEADERSHIP

This conference is the fifth annual program-wide meeting in the National AI Research Institutes Program, advancing U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence research. The Summit for AI Institutes Leadership (SAIL 2026) is an NSF-sponsored conference organized and executed by the program’s hub activity, the AI Institutes Virtual Organization (AIVO). The conference gathers the leaders and other key personnel from all AI Institutes to foster community building of those Institutes and other related activities into a network of collaborating organizations conducting knowledge exchange, growing their own competencies, and engaging with the broader public. The conference will take place November 2-4, 2026, in San Diego, CA.

This conference aims to maximize the value of the AI Institutes as a flagship national AI investment. The conference delivers on the intent of NSF and its funding partners to continue to nurture the AI Institutes into a fully cohered national program, resulting in synergy across the constituent institutes that is greater than the sum of its parts. This gathering builds upon the successes and lessons from the previous SAIL events (2022 through 2025) and continues a successful record of establishing SAIL as the cornerstone event for the National AI Research Institutes program. The conference program addresses the needs of AI Institutes in various stages of their lifecycle, from fully established to newly awarded AI Institutes. This greatly enhances knowledge transfer among all. The program includes knowledge exchange about education and outreach, project management, computing and research infrastructure, communications, workforce development, and ethics. The conference is comprised of a balance of community-moderated panels with plenary sessions and other program-wide community building. A day of workshops prior to the main conference allows the program’s special interest groups to hold smaller community workshops around topics of interest withing a specialized area, and across institute boundaries. The plan also calls for a substantial involvement of graduate student participation. Professional recordings and archives will maximize post-event impact both within the AI Institutes community and publicly to promote ongoing collaboration and knowledge dissemination to sustain and grow the impact of federally funded AI research.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2621465
Principal Investigator: Stephen Brown
Funds Obligated: $386,710
State: CA