2433429
Cooperative Agreement
Overview
Grant Description
AI Research Institute on Interaction for AI Assistants (ARIA) - This project establishes the AI Research Institute on Interaction for AI Assistants (ARIA).
ARIA will accelerate the development of next-generation AI assistants for mental and behavioral health, a field where trust, empathy, and personalization are critical and where current AI systems fall short.
ARIA embraces the integrated study of human cognition and machine cognition, treating them as inherently complementary scientific endeavors essential to achieving successful interaction with AI assistants.
ARIA brings researchers in computer science, neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy, law, and education together with mental health practitioners and civil society groups to forge new opportunities for synergistic scientific inquiry that advances technology and improves human well-being.
The institute will grow a future-ready workforce through interdisciplinary education pathways from K-12 through postgraduate training, helping shape a generation that understands the technical and ethical dimensions of AI.
ARIA’s research activities are centered around three pillars—grounding, instructability, and alignment—that are interconnected and motivated by challenges of developing effective AI assistants for mental and behavioral health.
In grounding, ARIA will develop new models for efficient learning and generalization, new learning algorithms leading to rich, causal models, computational theories for navigating the inherent trade-offs between learning algorithms or model architectures, and new evaluation metrics for tracking progress toward the goal of trustworthy AI assistants.
In instructability, ARIA will design new paradigms centered on establishing trust in AI, new theories and models of how humans interact with AI, new methods for describing AI’s internal processing, and new models and training procedures for integration into a computational framework for the development of AI assistants.
In alignment, ARIA will advance current best practices for human-centered design, establish precise definitions for what it means to be aligned, develop computational and experimental methods to operationalize these definitions, and develop cognitively and computationally sound metrics of alignment in complex ethical and social contexts.
Across all activities, ARIA promotes integration between academia and industry, and between research and continuing education, enabling a holistic approach to AI conceptualization, development, and evaluation.
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.
Subawards are planned for this award.
ARIA will accelerate the development of next-generation AI assistants for mental and behavioral health, a field where trust, empathy, and personalization are critical and where current AI systems fall short.
ARIA embraces the integrated study of human cognition and machine cognition, treating them as inherently complementary scientific endeavors essential to achieving successful interaction with AI assistants.
ARIA brings researchers in computer science, neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy, law, and education together with mental health practitioners and civil society groups to forge new opportunities for synergistic scientific inquiry that advances technology and improves human well-being.
The institute will grow a future-ready workforce through interdisciplinary education pathways from K-12 through postgraduate training, helping shape a generation that understands the technical and ethical dimensions of AI.
ARIA’s research activities are centered around three pillars—grounding, instructability, and alignment—that are interconnected and motivated by challenges of developing effective AI assistants for mental and behavioral health.
In grounding, ARIA will develop new models for efficient learning and generalization, new learning algorithms leading to rich, causal models, computational theories for navigating the inherent trade-offs between learning algorithms or model architectures, and new evaluation metrics for tracking progress toward the goal of trustworthy AI assistants.
In instructability, ARIA will design new paradigms centered on establishing trust in AI, new theories and models of how humans interact with AI, new methods for describing AI’s internal processing, and new models and training procedures for integration into a computational framework for the development of AI assistants.
In alignment, ARIA will advance current best practices for human-centered design, establish precise definitions for what it means to be aligned, develop computational and experimental methods to operationalize these definitions, and develop cognitively and computationally sound metrics of alignment in complex ethical and social contexts.
Across all activities, ARIA promotes integration between academia and industry, and between research and continuing education, enabling a holistic approach to AI conceptualization, development, and evaluation.
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.
Subawards are planned for this award.
Awardee
Funding Goals
THE GOAL OF THIS FUNDING OPPORTUNITY, "NATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) RESEARCH INSTITUTES", IS IDENTIFIED IN THE LINK: HTTPS://WWW.NSF.GOV/PUBLICATIONS/PUB_SUMM.JSP?ODS_KEY=NSF23610
Grant Program (CFDA)
Awarding / Funding Agency
Place of Performance
Providence,
Rhode Island
02912-9100
United States
Geographic Scope
Single Zip Code
Related Opportunity
Brown University was awarded
AI Research Institute Accelerating Next-Gen Mental Health AI Assistants
Cooperative Agreement 2433429
worth $4,000,000
from the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems in October 2025 with work to be completed primarily in Providence Rhode Island United States.
The grant
has a duration of 5 years and
was awarded through assistance program 47.070 Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
The Cooperative Agreement was awarded through grant opportunity National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes.
Status
(Ongoing)
Last Modified 8/12/25
Period of Performance
10/1/25
Start Date
9/30/30
End Date
Funding Split
$4.0M
Federal Obligation
$0.0
Non-Federal Obligation
$4.0M
Total Obligated
Activity Timeline
Additional Detail
Award ID FAIN
2433429
SAI Number
None
Award ID URI
SAI EXEMPT
Awardee Classifications
Private Institution Of Higher Education
Awarding Office
490502 DIV OF INFOR INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
Funding Office
490510 CISE INFORMATION TECH RESEARCH
Awardee UEI
E3FDXZ6TBHW3
Awardee CAGE
23242
Performance District
RI-01
Senators
Sheldon Whitehouse
John Reed
John Reed
Modified: 8/12/25