Deadline: 8-Oct-21
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching a call for proposals for the Amazon Research Awards. The Amazon Research Awards (ARA) program funds academic research and related contributions to open-source projects by top academic researchers around the world. ARA aims to fund projects leading toward a PhD degree or conducted as a part of post-doctoral work.
AWS is committed to helping you achieve the highest levels of security in the cloud. The security services use cutting edge machine learning algorithms to improve the security posture of AWS accounts. They aim to continue advancing the state of the art in some of the most challenging problems in information security.
Awards are structured as one-year unrestricted gifts to the Principal Investigator’s academic institution or organization, and can include cash and AWS Promotional Credits. Though this funding is not extendable, applicants can submit new proposals for subsequent calls.
What research areas does ARA fund?
ARA funds in a variety of research areas relevant to Amazon, such as applied machine learning, automated reasoning, computer vision, fairness in artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms and theory, natural language processing, robotics, security, and more.
Topics
- Threat, intrusion and anomaly detection for cloud security
- ML for malware analysis and detection
- Finding security vulnerabilities using ML
- Protecting and preserving data privacy in the cloud
- Learning with limited/noisy labels and weakly supervised learning
- Causal inference for information security
- Graph modeling and anomaly detection on graphs
- Zero/One-shot learning for information security
- Selected Principal Investigators (PIs) may receive the following:
- Unrestricted funds, no more than $80,000 USD on average
- AWS Promotional Credits, no more than $20,000 USD on average
- Training resources, including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers
- Awards are structured as one-year unrestricted gifts. The budget should include a list of expected costs specified in USD, and should not include administrative overhead costs. The final award amount will be determined by the awards panel.
- Researchers from around the world are encouraged to apply.
- To be eligible for an ARA Program award (“Award”), the Principal Investigator must be:
- either a full-time faculty member at an accredited academic institution or a permanent researcher at a non-governmental organization with recognized legal status in their respective country (equivalent to 501(c)(3) status under the United States Internal Revenue Code) and
- at or above the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence at the time of application. Each Principal Investigator is permitted to submit only one proposal to the ARA Program per call for proposal period.
- By submitting your proposal to the ARA Program, you represent that your Principal Investigator:
- is not a paid employee of a government entity (other than an accredited academic institution);
- is not under US export controls or sanctions;
- has not been a director, officer, employee, intern or contractor of Amazon or its affiliates within the 12 months preceding application to the ARA Program (“Ineligible Personnel”);
- is not a member of the immediate family or household of Ineligible Personnel;
- has not participated in or had decision-making authority over any cloud infrastructure procurements involving AWS or its affiliates; and
- The ARA Program is void in Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, the region of Crimea, and where otherwise prohibited by law.
- Amazon employees are not eligible to receive an Award.
For more information, visit https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/ai-for-information-security-call-for-proposals-fall-2021
