Newsletter
Google has announced the creation of the Academic Research Awards (GARA) program. GARA seeks to accelerate technological innovation focused on current relevant problems through a collaborative approach and financing. Applications for the first funding cycle will be open from June 27 to July 17.
Google is one of the largest companies in the tech industry. It has used its position to support technological development multiple times. The creation of the Academic Research Awards program is a new movement in this line. GARA will allow researchers to take forward their high-potential tech proposals.
Google’s Academic Research Awards will fund and support tech research
The GARA program will be carried out in funding cycles. For each cycle, applicants must register their technological proposals related to the key areas set by Google. Each funding cycle will consider different areas to work on. The company will determine them according to the context of the moment. They want to work on developments that can positively impact society.
Selected researchers will receive up to $150,000, funding that will allow them to carry out their projects without worrying about money. But that’s not all, since they can receive direct tutoring from a Google research sponsor. The sponsor will also provide them with more direct contact with the company’s research community. Everything revolves around this collaborative approach that seeks to both speed up the development of the project and make it even better if possible.
AI is heavily present in the first funding cycle
The first GARA’s funding cycle will focus on six key areas. The company mentions “Creating ML benchmarks for climate problems,” “Making education equitable, accessible and effective using AI,” “Quantum transduction and networking for scalable computing applications,” “Society-centered AI,” “Trust & safety” and “Using Gemini & Google’s open model family to solve systems and infrastructure problems.” As you can see, the artificial intelligence area is heavily present. This is normal considering the current context of the tech industry and that Google is behind the program.