AI R&D Gets a Boost in FY 2025 NITRD Supplement

Alas, the Networking & Information Technology R&D Program (NITRD) has published the Supplement to the President’s FY 2025 Budget. Part of the National Science and Technology Council under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the NITRD program aims to coordinate federal technology R&D activities at agencies. The issued supplement provides funding levels for key multidisciplinary and multisector technology R&D activities and programs at specific agencies participating the NITRD program.

The President’s overall FY 2025 request for NITRD-related R&D is $11.2B, a nearly 3% increase over FY 2024. The NITRD budget is primarily organized by Program Component Areas (PCAs). According to the supplement, PCAs are, “categories of technical R&D focus areas supported by agency investments, and are the technical areas under which agencies report their funding requests for their NITRD-related activities.”

This article focuses on the artificial intelligence (AI) aspects of the NITRD program. The AI R&D request in the supplement totals $3.3B in FY 2025, up from the $3.1B request in FY 2024.

In addition to funding and coordination of AI R&D activities across agencies, NITRD developed two public-facing resource portals to support research of the emerging technology: the AI Research Program Repository to serve as a directory of active federal AI R&D programs, and the AI R&D Testbed Inventory to help researchers locate federally supported testbeds and testing.

Within the supplement, NITRD provides the breakdown in funding by program and agency for the AI R&D PCA, as well as funding information on the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, as mandated by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act (NAIIA) of 2020. Note that cross-disciplinary AI R&D investments may be found throughout NITRD’s supplement under other PCAs, however, this article will focus on AI R&D PCA investments.

AI R&D PCA

The AI R&D PCA totals $1.9B for FY 2025, up from the $1.8B in FY 2024 funding, including over $16M in FY 2024 supplement funding. Strategic priorities for this PCA include long-term investments in fundamental and responsible AI research, understanding the ethical, legal and societal implications of AI, ensuring the safety and security of AI systems, developing shared environments and datasets for testing, and AI technology standards and benchmarks, among others.

Source: NITRD Supplement

Significant increases in FY 2025 AI R&D include an additional $12M at ARPA-H for the launch of the Digital Health Security Initiative (DIGIHEALS) and the Biomedical Fabric Toolbox programs. Moreover, NIH requests a $16M increase to grow AI programs in Alzheimer's, dementia and cognitive decline, and new research in foundational models for health and vision. NIST requests an increase of $43M in FY 2025 towards the AI initiatives requested in the President’s budget. AI funding at DOE includes core research for trustworthy AI, privacy preserving technologies, computational science efforts, and to train mathematicians and computer scientists focused on the challenges of AI. The reduction at DARPA is attributed to the conclusion of the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node programs and the rescission of $33 million.

National AI Research Institutes

Appendix B of the supplement provides FY 2025 funding information on the National AI Research Institutes, which provide, “foundational and use-inspired AI research, and it is the U.S.’s largest AI research ecosystem funded through partnerships between federal agencies and nonprofit and industry leaders,” according to the appendix document. FY 2025 funding spans 25 institutes led by five agencies: NSF, DOD, Education, USDA and NIST. The institutes’ FY 2025 budget request totals $72M, an increase of $3M above FY 2024 investments.

Types of AI R&D among the institutes include curbing climate effects of AI, edge computing and next-generation networks to support AI, integrating AI into agriculture operations, and intelligent technologies for education.

Looking Ahead

Technology R&D is expected to remain a key investment under the new administration. In fact, top technology officials under the initial Trump Administration supported doubling funding for AI R&D. Additionally, the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act (NAIIA) of 2020 was signed into law under Trump, thus changes to the concept of the institutes are not anticipated. However, there may be adjustments in AI R&D strategies and focus areas, such as the level of funding for climate-related AI R&D.  Furthermore, the incoming administration supports a reduction in AI-related antitrust enforcement, which could result in changes to related R&D funding.