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"Amazon Research Awards Robotics Call for Proposals Spring 2026 for AI for Robotics, Autonomous Navigation, Manipulation and Safety-Critical Control" is currently closed and not accepting applications.
This is the robotics-specific call under Amazon Research Awards, and it is worth treating separately from Amazon's agentic AI and other ARA calls because the topic set is narrow, technical and unusually well specified for a corporate award. Four areas are in scope. AI for Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction covers multi-modal perception, grounding tasks from human instructions, and collaborative safety.
Autonomous Navigation covers geometry-aware systems, multi-modal perception integration and reinforcement-learning-based control. Manipulation covers cluttered environments, physical reasoning and world models, data synthesis, and cross-embodiment transfer. Safety-Critical Control covers compliant control, verification of reinforcement learning, and robust human detection.
Amazon states it welcomes theoretical advances, creative new ideas and practical applications, which is broader than the usual industrial-relevance filter, and the presence of world models and cross-embodiment transfer signals genuine interest in frontier embodied-AI questions rather than only warehouse-adjacent engineering.
The award package is up to USD 50,000 unrestricted plus up to USD 50,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, and the credit half matters more than the cash for teams doing simulation-heavy or large-scale training work. The proposal itself is short - a maximum of three pages excluding appendices, on the official template - which makes this one of the lowest-effort applications available to a robotics group relative to the award size.
The Spring 2026 window ran 25 March to 13 May 2026 with decisions notified in August 2026; the call recurs, so the practical move is to prepare against the next cycle.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Open to academic principal investigators; detailed eligibility criteria are published separately on the Amazon Research Awards program rules page at amazon.science/research-awards/program-rules. Selected PIs receive up to USD 50,000 in unrestricted funds plus up to USD 50,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, together with AWS training tutorials and sessions with Amazon scientists. Proposals must use the official template and are limited to a maximum of three pages excluding appendices. In-scope research areas are AI for Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction (multi-modal perception, task grounding from human instructions, collaborative safety); Autonomous Navigation (geometry-aware systems, multi-modal perception integration, reinforcement-learning-based control); Manipulation (cluttered environments, physical reasoning and world models, data synthesis, cross-embodiment transfer); and Safety-Critical Control (compliant control, reinforcement learning verification, robust human detection). Theoretical advances, new ideas and practical applications are all welcomed. The Spring 2026 submission period ran from 25 March to 13 May 2026 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time, with decisions notified in August 2026; that window has closed. Applicants must confirm the next cycle's dates, current topic list, award amounts, template requirements and full eligibility rules on the Amazon Science research awards site before preparing a proposal. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows selected principal investigators receive up to USD 50,000 in unrestricted funds plus up to USD 50,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, for a combined maximum package of USD 100,000. amount_min of 50,000 reflects the unrestricted cash ceiling taken alone, since the cash and credit components are awarded separately and a smaller credit allocation is possible; amount_max of 100,000 is the combined published ceiling. Awards also include AWS tutorials and sessions with Amazon scientists, which carry no stated dollar value. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
The published deadline was May 13, 2026, which has passed. Check the official notice for any future application windows before investing time in a proposal.
Amazon Research Awards Robotics Call for Proposals Spring 2026 for AI for Robotics, Autonomous Navigation, Manipulation and Safety-Critical Control is funded by Amazon (Amazon Science, Amazon Research Awards). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
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