Deadline: 15 June 2020
Given the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis, Microsoft is accepting requests in the AI for Health program for COVID-19 grant proposals from nonprofits, academia, and governments. This is a focused effort for COVID-19 grant requests only.
This grant program provides Azure cloud and High-Performance Computing capabilities. Microsoft team of AI for Health data science experts, whose mission is to improve the health of people and communities worldwide, is also open to collaborations with COVID-19 researchers as they tackle this critical challenge. More broadly, Microsoft’s research scientists across the world, spanning computer science, biology, medicine, and public health, will also be available to provide advice and collaborate per mutual interest.
This is part of Microsoft’s larger commitment toward fighting COVID-19, as they are working to support remote education and empower students around the world, enabling businesses to work from home, securing needed medical supplies and supporting local communities. They hope this added commitment empowers researchers and organizations to solve this crisis.
Focus Areas
Microsoft efforts to support COVID-19-related research efforts will focus on five areas:
- Data and insights to inform for people’s safety and economic impacts
- Treatment and diagnostics,enabling research to further the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics
- Allocation of resources,including recommendations on the allocation of limited assets, such as hospital space and medical supplies
- Dissemination of accurate information to minimize misinformation sharing
- Scientific research to study and understand COVID-19.
Funding Information
Microsoft is dedicating $20 million to this specific effort.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Potential benefits and clearly defined impact to the COVID-19 response
- Feasibility of the technical approach
- Need for Azure Computing and/or AI to solve the problem
- Knowledge and experience managing Azure within your organization
- Estimated computing resource requirements
Scientific/Technical Goal
Describe how your proposed work contributes to understanding of COVID-19 and/or improves ability to respond to the pandemic.
- What is the scientific/technical goal?
- What is the plan and timetable for achieving the goal?
- Where do you plan to publish your results and in what timeline?
Estimate of Compute, Storage and Other Resources
To the extent possible, provide an estimate of the scale and type of the resources needed to complete the work.
- Are there specific computing architectures or systems that are most appropriate
- How much computing support will this effort approximately require in terms of core, node, or GPU hours?
- Describe the storage needs of the project.
- What type of data will be used in your project?
- Does your project require access to any public datasets? If so, please describe these datasets and how you intend to use them?
Team Composition and Preparedness
- Summarize your team’s qualifications and readiness to execute the project.
- What expertise and experience does your team bring to the project?
- What is the expected lead time before you can begin using the provided resources?
- Are there any additional research references you would like to provide (e.g. Papers, Videos, Web pages, etc.)?
- List of the researchers and/or technical resources that are part of the project team.
- Submissions will be reviewed and responded to within 14 days.
To apply for a grant, you must prepare a description, no longer than three pages, of your proposal which cover the following questions. Do not include any proprietary information in proposals. It is expected that teams who receive AI for Health COVID-19 grants will publish their work and results in an open manner.
For more information, visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for-health