Google Research Awards: Winter 2014

Posted by Maggie Johnson, Director of Education & University Relations

We have just completed another round of the Google Research Awards, our biannual open call for proposals on computer science-related topics including robotics, natural language processing, systems, policy, and mobile. Our grants cover tuition for a graduate student and provide both faculty and students the opportunity to work directly with Google researchers and engineers.

This round we received 691 proposals, an increase of 19% over last round, covering 46 countries on 6 continents. After expert reviews and committee discussions, we decided to fund 115 projects. The subject areas that received the highest level of support were human-computer interaction, systems, and machine learning, with 25% of the funding awarded to universities outside the U.S.

We set a new record this round with over 2000 reviews done by 650 reviewers. Each proposal is reviewed by internal committees who provide feedback on merit and relevance. In many cases, the committees include some of the foremost experts in the world. All committee members are volunteers who spend a significant amount of time making the Research Award program happen twice a year.

Congratulations to the well-deserving recipients of this round’s awards. If you are interested in applying for the next round (deadline is April 15), please visit our website for more information.