The Research Scholar Program is designed to help early-career professors conduct research in fields relevant to Google. The Research Scholar Program grants unrestricted gifts to promote research at institutions worldwide, with a focus on sponsoring world-class research by early-career professors.
Google hopes that this programme will stimulate the establishment of long-term ties and cooperation with new professors. Awards are given to the institution as unrestricted donations and are not meant to cover overhead or indirect expenditures. They are intended to be used to support the professor’s research endeavours during the academic year in which the award is given.
Google Research Scholar Program Eligibility
- Applicants must be a full-time assistant, associate, or professor at a university or degree-granting research institution at the time of the application submission.
- Post doctoral staff can only serve as a co-PI, not a primary PI.
- Applicants must have received their PhD within seven years of submission (e.g. applicant in 2023 must have received PhD in 2015 or later).
- They consider exceptions for applicants who have been teaching seven years or fewer and had delays, such as working in industry, parental leave, leave of absence, etc. This exception request can be documented on the application.
- Applicants can submit one application per round.
- Faculty can only serve as a PI or Co-PI per round. Applicants cannot serve on two separate proposals.
- Applicants can apply a maximum of 3 times within the 7 years post-PhD.
Google Research Scholar Program Area of Interest
Proposals are selected through an internal review process. Applicants will be notified of their proposal status within six months of the initial submission. They ask applicants to categorize their proposals into one of the following areas of interest to Google in Computer Science and related fields:
- Algorithms and optimization
- Applied science
- Geo/maps
- Health research
- Human-computer interaction
- Machine learning and data mining
- Machine perception
- Mobile
- Natural language processing
- Networking
- Privacy
- Quantum computing
- Security
- Software engineering and programming languages
- Structured data, extraction, semantic graph, and database management
- Systems (hardware and software)
Google Research Scholar Program Funding
- The funds granted will be up to $60,000 USD and are intended to support the advancement of the professor’s research.
How to Apply for Google Research Scholar Program
Submit applications by 11:59:59pm UTC on December 1, 2023. Notification of decisions will be announced by email in April 2024.