The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a partner in the Fabric for AI-Driven Science (FabAID), a five-year, $24.5 million project selected by the U.S. National Science Foundation to help build the nation’s future data backbone for AI-driven research. Led by the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin, FabAID was announced as part of a broader $83 million NSF investment through the Integrated Data Systems and Services (IDSS) program. As a partner institution, Nebraska will lead cybersecurity for the fabric and contribute to its day-to-day operations.

FabAID aims to weave together distributed data, AI, and computational services into a single fabric that reaches researchers and educators across the country. The project connects data repositories, computing resources, and national cyberinfrastructure, including NAIRR, the Super Intelligence Infrastructure for Science, so scientists can spend more time drawing insight from data and less time managing the infrastructure underneath. FabAID builds on more than two decades of distributed-computing work by the OSG Consortium and the Center for High Throughput Computing, including the Pelican and PATh platforms and HTCondor.

“Leading cybersecurity for a national effort like FabAID lets Nebraska contribute to the community building the next generation of research infrastructure for AI,” said Derek Weitzel, principal investigator for the Nebraska component of FabAID and Research Associate Professor in the Holland Computing Center. “It opens doors for our researchers and students to take part.”

Nebraska’s role: keeping the fabric running and keeping it secure

A national data fabric only works if researchers can depend on it. Nebraska’s Holland Computing Center (HCC) will lead the fabric’s cybersecurity and contribute to the operations that make that possible:

• Cybersecurity. HCC will lead the design and maintenance of the security practices that protect the fabric and the researchers who rely on it, so that data can be shared across institutional boundaries without compromising trust. Strong security is essential for a system meant to serve institutions large and small in all 50 states.
• Operations. HCC will contribute to running and monitoring the distributed services that make up the FabAID fabric, working to keep data moving reliably across the many institutions, repositories, and computing sites the fabric connects. HCC has years of experience operating national research cyberinfrastructure.

Experience from PATh, IRIS-HEP, and the National Research Platform

HCC has operated infrastructure like this for years. Through the Partnership to Advance Throughput Computing (PATh), the Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics (IRIS-HEP), and the National Research Platform (NRP), it has helped run and secure national-scale, multi-tenant cyberinfrastructure used by researchers at institutions across the country.

These systems raise the same challenges as FabAID: keeping distributed services running reliably, coordinating across many independent sites, and protecting shared resources that many institutions depend on. PATh runs a set of shared services where monitoring, accounting, and identity management keep the system secure, and NRP applies the same approach across a distributed, GPU-rich platform for AI and data-intensive research. HCC also operates infrastructure for IRIS-HEP, the NSF-funded Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics, which develops the software and data systems the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider era will depend on.

That experience is what makes Nebraska a strong fit to lead cybersecurity and support operations for FabAID.

Holland Computing Center ready to help researchers

Beyond its cybersecurity leadership and operations role, the Holland Computing Center is ready to help researchers put FabAID to work. HCC staff can help scientists and educators, at the University of Nebraska and beyond, connect their data and workflows to the FabAID fabric and take advantage of the shared data, AI, and computing services it brings together. 

Researchers interested in using FabAID infrastructure are encouraged to reach out to HCC at hcc-support@unl.edu.

About FabAID

The Fabric for AI-Driven Science (FabAID) is a five-year, $24.5 million project led by the Morgridge Institute for Research with the University of Wisconsin–Madison and additional partner institutions, including the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. FabAID was selected under the NSF Integrated Data Systems and Services (IDSS) program, part of an $83 million NSF investment in the data infrastructure underpinning AI-driven science. Learn more at fabaid.io.

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under award no. 2609485. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Related FabAID coverage

• NSF: NSF announces $83M investment in integrated data systems and services
• Morgridge Institute: NSF announces investment to shape the nation’s future data backbone

About the Holland Computing Center

The Holland Computing Center (HCC) is the University of Nebraska’s research computing center, providing high-performance computing, storage, and research cyberinfrastructure expertise to researchers across the University of Nebraska system and to national collaborations. Learn more at hcc.unl.edu or contact hcc-support@unl.edu.

College of Engineering Derek Weitzel Engineering National Science Foundation School of Computing The Fabric for AI-Driven Science