In the fall of 2025, Ithaka S+R, in collaboration with Montclair State University and Chapman University and with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), convened two regional workshops, one hosted at Montclair and the other at Chapman. Each workshop brought together research administrators, librarians, CIOs, and research support staff from local and regional universities to explore opportunities for collaboration around leveraging AI in research support and administration.

In January 2026, a session at the CNI Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series will share the activities conducted during these two workshops and discuss preliminary takeaways, including emerging themes and early ideas such as building coordinated AI literacy and training programs tailored to research administrators and support staff; exploring regional approaches to sharing computing resources and technical expertise; developing transparent and trustworthy frameworks for integrating AI into compliance and administrative workflows; and piloting collaborative models, such as regional “AI academies” or experimentation hubs, to strengthen institutional capacity and encourage cross-campus learning.