Bridge2AI Network for AI Health Science

The purpose of this forecast is to inform the research community that the NIH Common Fund, along with its partner NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, is planning to issue a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) to support the continuation of the Bridge2AI program. Stage 1 of the Bridge2AI program produced unique, large-scale, valuable, and open resource, AI-ready datasets and best practices that the scientific community can adopt. The second stage of the program will foster advances on two fronts: 1) Leverage the AI-ready datasets from Stage 1 to yield products that can address biomedical and behavioral research grand challenges, accelerate the discovery of new biological theories and rules, and advance understanding of biological and behavioral mechanisms of health and disease; 2) Create networks of multidisciplinary researchers to advance the science of AI science by developing necessary metrics and a framework to for trustworthy, reproducible and explainable AI-enabled biomedical and behavioral research. This forecast is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. This NOFO will utilize the U24 activity code. The NOFO will support a research initiative that will create a network of multidisciplinary Centers to advance the science of AI science. Centers will work across the evolving landscape of AI science to create a framework for trustworthy, reproducible and explainable AI-enabled biomedical and behavioral research. Center activities will include evaluation of AI models and products built through other initiatives in the program and other sources, convening expert panels and round tables, supporting pilot research activities, multidisciplinary cross-training and dissemination activities to help grow the nascent field of biomedical and behavioral research AI science. The Network of Centers will produce best practices for AI methods and trustworthy AI model building principles, frameworks to enable the evaluation of AI models and methods for reproducibility, replicability and transparency, guiding principles for agentic autonomous labs of the future, and multidisciplinary training to strengthen the American biomedical and behavioral research AI workforce. This initiative will support 3-5 Centers, and is one of twoInitiatives under the Bridge2AI program, the other of which will be supported by a research contract.