Amazon Research Awards Agentic AI Call for Proposals for Academic Research on Autonomous AI Agents

The Amazon Research Awards robotics call is one of seven ARA tracks and funds academic work at the intersection of AI and physical robots, with award decisions weighted toward scientific quality, creativity and potential for impact at scale. Each award pairs up to USD 50,000 in unrestricted funds with up to USD 50,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, plus an assigned Amazon research contact and access to AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers - the industry contact is often the more durable benefit. The technical scope is specific and worth reading closely before writing. AI for Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction covers multi-modal perception, task grounding from human instructions, understanding object dynamics, embodiment effects, legibility of robot intent and multi-modal communication strategies. Autonomous Navigation covers geometry-aware navigation, multi-modal perception integration, reinforcement learning for object interaction and scalable data generation. Manipulation spans cluttered and unstructured environments including occlusion, stacking, packing and non-prehensile manipulation, physical reasoning and world models, and data for manipulation through scenario synthesis, cross-embodiment transfer and synthetic data. A fourth area, Safety-Critical Control and Safe Reinforcement Learning, covers safe manipulation, compliant body control, RL verification and human detection and localisation. Proposals are capped at three pages excluding appendices and must come from a principal investigator at an academic institution, with one co-PI permitted. ARA runs recurring cycles; the Spring 2026 window ran 25 March to 13 May 2026 with decision letters in August 2026, and applicants should watch the ARA site for the next call rather than assuming a fixed annual date.

The Merck Stimulating Innovative Research Grant Program 2026 includes a dedicated grant topic for artificial intelligence in cell culture media and process development, offering up to EUR 150,000 per year for up to 3 years. The program accelerates innovation through collaborative research, early engagement with industry experts, and translation of novel ideas into practical solutions. In 2026, priority areas also include in-vitro models for neuroinflammatory diseases (EUR 250,000/year for 2 years) and innovative approaches to contaminated materials remediation (EUR 150,000/year for 2 years). The two-stage application process begins with non-confidential submissions, followed by deep-dive workshops where finalists collaborate with Merck scientists and managers to jointly optimize proposals. The AI-specific grant focuses on applying machine learning and AI to optimize cell culture media formulation, bioprocess parameter optimization, and manufacturing quality control.

The Sony Research Award Program is Sony's principal channel for funding external academic research, and the Focused Research Award is its collaborative track: up to 150,000 dollars for focused joint research between a university or research institute and Sony. The 2026 research areas are unusually broad for a corporate program and cover most of the modern AI stack alongside Sony's hardware interests - AI and large language models, computer vision, machine learning, robotics, human-computer interaction, affective computing, speech and language technologies, audio technologies, RF sensing, wireless communications, cybersecurity, sports technology, digital humans, generative AI, content creation and neural rendering, plus device-level areas including MicroLED and optical metasurfaces. For AI and robotics groups this makes it one of the wider corporate calls available, though the breadth is deceptive: Sony funds work that connects to its own research agenda, and proposals are strongest when there is an identifiable Sony research counterpart for the collaboration. Eligibility is tightly drawn around the principal investigator rather than the institution. The PI must be a full-time faculty member or researcher at a recognized institution - Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor or equivalent researcher - and must be able to supervise PhD students. Co-PIs are permitted but must be from the same institution and meet the same requirements, which rules out the cross-institutional consortia common in public funding. The 2026 deadline is 15 September 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, with a separate India-specific time given as 16 September 2026. Submission guidelines are on the Sony Research Award Program site.

The Meta Research PhD Fellowship supports doctoral students conducting research in areas central to Meta's technical agenda, with several of its annual award tracks dedicated to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Current AI-relevant tracks include AI System Hardware/Software Co-Design (high-performance AI algorithms spanning model compression, numerical optimization, benchmarking, and distributed inference and training), Applied Statistics (bias and variance estimation and correction in models and datasets, uncertainty quantification), AR/VR Human Understanding (efficient ML techniques that run on AR/VR devices), and Programming Languages (program synthesis, probabilistic and differentiable programming). Recipients receive two years of paid tuition and fees, a $42,000 annual stipend covering living expenses and conference travel, and a paid visit to Meta headquarters for the annual Fellowship Summit; the award carries no intellectual property claim on the student's research. The 2027 cycle opened August 3, 2026 with applications closing September 20, 2026, reference letters due in October 2026, and winners notified in January 2027.