Nepal's National AI Policy 2025 (locally known as AI Policy 2082) introduced a three-tier institutional structure meant to spread AI research, training, and governance beyond Kathmandu — down to every province and, eventually, every local government. At the center of this structure sits a network of bodies called AI Excellence Centres. But what exactly are they, who runs them, and can an ordinary student or researcher actually walk in and use one? This guide explains the mandate, the current rollout status, and how to engage with the ecosystem in 2026.
What Is an AI Excellence Centre?
Under the National AI Policy 2025, an AI Excellence Centre is a dedicated institutional unit tasked with conducting research and development in AI technology, organizing training and workshops for students and researchers, and managing AI-related data with a strong emphasis on privacy and ethics. The policy envisions these centres operating at three levels of government: federal, provincial, and local — each with a scope suited to its administrative reach.
Federal, Provincial, and Local-Level Mandate
Federal level: The National AI Centre, inaugurated in Kathmandu on November 10, 2025 under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, functions as the operational hub and secretariat of the AI Regulation Council. It sets national standards, coordinates programs across all three tiers of government, publishes a National AI Index, and runs awareness and capacity-building campaigns for the whole country.
Provincial level: Each of Nepal's seven provinces is meant to eventually host its own AI Excellence Centre, tasked with province-specific research priorities (such as agriculture, disaster response, or local-language AI tools) and with training researchers and students within that province.
Local level: Municipalities and rural municipalities are expected to run smaller-scale AI units focused primarily on digital literacy, community training, and integrating AI-assisted tools into local government service delivery, such as the Nagarik App.
Research, Training, and Policy-Advisory Roles
Across all three tiers, the centres share a common set of functions written into the policy: conducting applied AI research relevant to their region, organizing structured training and workshops for university students and early-career researchers, advising the respective government tier on AI-related regulation and risk mitigation, and managing datasets responsibly with privacy safeguards built in from the start. In practice, this means a provincial centre could be advising a provincial ministry on how to deploy an AI chatbot for citizen services while simultaneously running a weekend workshop for local college students.
Which Provinces Have Active Centres Right Now?
As of mid-2026, the rollout is still in its early stages. The National AI Centre in Kathmandu is fully operational and remains the only fully functioning centre at the federal level. On the provincial side, Bagmati Province is furthest along: it already operates the revived Banepa IT Park — home to a Kathmandu University Smart City Research Center, Cloud Himalaya, and Nepal's first supercomputer — which realistically serves many of the functions an AI Excellence Centre would take on, even though it isn't formally branded as one yet. Koshi, Madhesh, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali, and Sudurpashchim provinces do not yet have a comparable dedicated facility, though the policy explicitly lists establishing an AI Excellence Centre in every province as a target outcome.
Separately, the government's fiscal year 2026/27 budget announced a Sovereign AI Compute Centre to be built in Syuchatar, Kathmandu, using hydropower to run domestic AI infrastructure at subsidized rates for startups and researchers. While this is a compute facility rather than an Excellence Centre in the policy sense, it signals where near-term federal investment is concentrated, and commentators have already floated a second, decentralized site outside the valley for redundancy.
How Students and Researchers Can Engage
• Follow the National AI Centre's public programs — workshops, hackathons (including cross-border events like the Nepal–US Hackathon), and training cohorts are typically announced through the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's channels and partner universities.
• Connect through university partnerships — institutions such as Kathmandu University's Smart City Research Center at Banepa already collaborate on AI research and are a practical entry point until more provincial centres are formally established.
• Track provincial ministry announcements — as provinces build out their own centres, provincial ministries of social development or information technology are the bodies most likely to publish calls for researchers, interns, or training cohorts.
• Watch for regulatory sandbox openings — the policy also proposes a regulatory sandbox for testing AI applications, which could become another route for student and startup teams to get hands-on access to infrastructure and mentorship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there an official list of all AI Excellence Centres in Nepal?
Not yet a complete, publicly published list of operational centres in every province. The National AI Policy 2025 lays out the mandate and target of one centre per province, but as of 2026 only the federal-level National AI Centre is fully established, with Bagmati Province's existing IT infrastructure functioning closest to the model.
Who oversees the AI Excellence Centres?
The AI Regulation Council and the National AI Centre provide overall coordination and standard-setting at the federal level, while provincial and local governments are responsible for establishing and running their own centres under this shared framework.
Can private companies or NGOs partner with an AI Excellence Centre?
The policy encourages coordination with academia, the private sector, and international partners, so partnerships are expected, though the specific application process will likely vary once individual provincial centres are formally set up.
What's the difference between the National AI Centre and an AI Excellence Centre?
The National AI Centre is the single federal secretariat that coordinates the entire AI ecosystem nationwide, while AI Excellence Centres are the individual research, training, and advisory units meant to exist at federal, provincial, and local levels under that coordination.
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