Submit a Letter of Interest to Join the NIST AI Consortium

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NIST invites organizations to provide letters of interest describing technical expertise and products, data, and/or models to support the collaborative establishment of new measurement science that will enable the identification of proven, scalable, and interoperable techniques and metrics to promote the development of AI. 

Participation in the consortium is open to all interested organizations that can contribute their expertise, products, data, and/or models to the activities of the consortium. Selected participants will be required to enter into a consortium Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST.  

The work of the Consortium will provide a hub for interested parties to work together in building and maturing a measurement science for AI.

NIST will accept letters of interest from new organizations to participate in this Consortium on an ongoing basis with regular periods of review for new applicants, likely occurring biannually. The first period of review will begin in June 2026, and selection determinations will subsequently be communicated to applicants. Existing Consortium Members will not be required to submit new letters of interest.

Focus Areas 

NIST has identified a number of focus areas around which to organize the scope of the Consortium’s activities. These include domain-specific application areas that were selected based upon current domestic priorities, alongside additional areas focusing on measurement science and technology with broad applications that underpin the innovation, development, and adoption of AI technologies. Some examples of these focus areas can be found in the Federal Register Notice. 

Activities of the Consortium are subject to change based upon current NIST and U.S. Government priorities and as advances in the technical state of the art open new avenues for scientific inquiry and collaboration. The complete list of ongoing Consortium activities with its goals and outcomes will be made available to the Consortium Members.

Consortium Members will be expected to contribute:

• Technical expertise in one or more of the following areas:
  • Data and data documentation,
  • AI Metrology,
  • AI Governance,
  • AI security vulnerabilities,
  • AI system design and development,
  • AI system deployment,
  • Test, Evaluation, Validation, and Verification methodologies,
  • AI Explainability and Interpretability,
  • Workforce skills,
  • Psychometrics,
  • Economic analysis,
• Models, data, and/or products to support and demonstrate pathways to enable AI systems development,
• Infrastructure support for Consortium projects,
• Facility space and organizational support to host Consortium Members for workshops and conferences.

Requirements for Letters of Interest (LOI):

Each responding organization’s letter of interest should include the address, point of contact, and following information:

1. The role(s) the organization will play in the consortium efforts.
2. The specific expertise they intend to bring to the consortium.
3. The products, services, data, or other technical capabilities will they use in consortium activities.

Letters of interest should not include proprietary information. NIST will not treat any information provided in response to this notice as proprietary information.

How to Submit a LOI

Completed letters of interest must be submitted via the letter of interest webform below, by email to aiconsortium [at] nist.gov (aiconsortium[at]nist[dot]gov), or via hardcopy to National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8900, Gaithersburg, MD 20899. Organizations whose letters of interest are accepted in accordance with the process outlined in the Federal Register Notice will be asked to sign a consortium Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST. A consortium CRADA template will be made available to qualifying applicants.

NIST will contact interested parties if there are questions regarding the responsiveness of the letters of interest to the project objective or requirements identified above. NIST will select participants who have submitted complete letters of interest on a first come, first served basis.

There may be continuing opportunity to participate even after initial activity commences for participants who were not selected initially or have submitted the letter of interest after the selection process.  At NIST’s discretion, entities which are not permitted to enter into CRADAs pursuant to law may be allowed to participate in the Consortium pursuant to separate non-CRADA agreement.

NIST cannot guarantee that all submissions will be utilized, or the products proposed by respondents will be used in consortium activities. Each prospective participant will be expected to work collaboratively with NIST staff and other project participants under the terms of the Consortium CRADA.