Competitive Speech and Debate Grant Program

The Sony Research Award Program is Sony's principal academic collaboration instrument, and the Focused Research Award track funds joint work between university faculty and Sony Research on a published list of specific problems rather than open-ended investigator-defined topics. The 2026 cycle carries ten focus areas, most of which sit squarely in modern AI: internal mechanisms of multimodal generative models for content creation, knowledge representation and reasoning for graph-based modelling, psychology-informed user modelling for content streaming, post-training of speech language models, AI-powered visual technology, digital human content creation for sports, provenance proofs for AI-generated derivative content, and long-term memory for sequential decision-making in gaming. Awards are up to 150,000 dollars per year for a one-year research period with possible renewal, paid as a single all-inclusive sum. Because the tracks are tightly specified, the decisive factor in a competitive proposal is demonstrable alignment with the named focus area and with the Sony research group that owns it - a strong proposal against an adjacent problem generally does worse than a merely good proposal against the stated one. Eligibility is restricted to full-time professors or researchers qualified to supervise PhD students; adjunct faculty and professors emeritus are excluded. The 2026 application deadline is 15 September 2026.

Tackling gender-based violence against politically active women and LGBTIQ people is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: EU and national policymakers and relevant stakeholders get an enhanced understanding of the drivers of violence against women and LGBTIQ people who are politically active or political aspirants. Enhanced prevention and early intervention through better understanding of the drivers and impacts of violence (short- and long-term) on women and LGBTIQ people engaged, or aspiring to engage, in online and offline political activities and how their participation evolves after experiencing violence and harassment. Uptake of evidence-based policy recommendations by policymakers and relevant stakeholders on tackling gender-based violence alongside violence against politically active women and LGBTIQ people, promoting equal political participation and addressing harmful narratives. Broader adherence to media guidelines on responsible, ethical, and safe portrayals of and reporting on gender-based violence in a political context, embedding gender-sensitive and intersectional reporting and incorporating successful practices with demonstrable, positive outcomes. Promotion of an inclusive environment that encourages political participation of women, and LGBTIQ people, notably from underrepresented groups, through collaboration across key public, political and civil society actors. Scope: The increased participation and visibility of women and LGBTIQ people in public life [1] coincides with a rise in two severe forms of violence: politically motivated violence targeting public figures and gender-based violence (GBV). [2] When these two forms of violence intersect, they obstruct progress toward equality, reinforce traditional gender norms and stereotypes, power imbalances, and pose significant threats to democratic societies. The EU Directive on combating violence against women acknowledges the impact of violence on women active in public life, particularly its silencing effect. The European Commission’s 2024-2029 political guidelines place the fight against GBV at the heart of the post-2025 Equality Strategy, notably to empower women in politics [3] . The Roadmap for Women’s Rights [4] recalls that women “face higher risks of threats and violence limiting their participation in public life”, while the Equality Commissioner’s Mission Letter identifies hate-motivated harassment and (online) violence as a key focus for the EU LGBTIQ equality strategy for 2026-2030. The mission letter to the Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law emphasises strengthening the protection of political candidates and elected representatives facing growing threats and undue pressure. This violence occurs in various forms, including sexual and physical threats and assaults, harassment, character assassinations, hate speech, disinformation campaigns exploiting misogynistic or anti-LGBTIQ narratives and deceptive image manipulation. With technological advancements, the methods of violence and harassment have moved online and become increasingly sophisticated and viral, exemplified by phenomena like cyber pile-on harassment and deepfakes. Their consequences, however, extend to the physical world, causing physical and psychological harm, as well as impacting professional and personal reputations, quality of life, and family. Proposals should, therefore, explore the wide range of impacts, including the chilling effect on victims, such as their withdrawal from social media public debates or public offices, including political ones. As situations of social, economic or political instability can exacerbate GBV and LGBTIQ-phobic violence, proposals are encouraged to explore how crises affect the nature, prevalence, and prevention of these types of violence, as well as victims’ access to support and justice. Both political and media spheres, including radio, television, print, and online platforms, play a key role in shaping societal norms. Yet, coverage of GBV and cases of LGB Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Culture, creativity and inclusive society, Democracy and Governance Keywords: Internet Science, Political systems and institutions, governance, Public engagement, Social topics (Women's and gender studies), Violence, conflict and conflict resolution, Gender-based violence, LGBTIQ, gender, gender research, intersectionality, media, political empowerment, politically motivated violence, public spheres, women in politics

AI integration in CCSI work practice: catalysing innovation and competitiveness is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Insights, recommendations, strategies, guidelines, methods and tools supporting full AI integration in CCSI practices become available to CCSI, policymakers, and stakeholders. Scenarios for co-created solutions tailored to CCSI needs, utilizing quality data and federated data sources, along with digital infrastructures, and inclusive cooperation processes, become available. Generally made available AI-powered and ethically designed solutions, tools and services in several CCSI areas benefit creators, cultural professionals, and society, including persons with disabilities and other specific needs, fostering innovative creative expressions and improving creative business models while preserving and enhancing cultural diversity, and inclusion. By mastering ethical and inclusive AI, CCSI are empowered drivers of culture, innovation, competitiveness and societal wellbeing. Scope: AI technologies are transformative, providing unprecedented opportunities for human creativity, experimentations and co-creations. AI profoundly impacts cultural and creative sectors and industries, changing practices, facilitating new ways of working and making innovative services and products possible. Artists, industry players, and cultural organisations increasingly use AI, for assistance in content creation, production, and management, to predict trends, personalise market content, engage audiences, enhance cultural heritage preservation and accessibility, and many more purposes. Cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI) [1] need to fully harness AI's potential to maintain relevance, expand their impact and value, increase competitiveness, and keep their vibrant, inclusive nature. Embracing and co-creating ethical AI solutions tailored to CCSI needs will, among other benefits, enable the automation of low-creativity tasks, allowing to increase focus on high-value activities that enhance creativity and productivity, thus unlocking unprecedented possibilities. Production times and costs can be reduced, market reach expanded, preservation, interpretation and inclusive access to cultural heritage enhanced, and new job categories could emerge. Although several initiatives are on the ground, a comprehensive understanding of enabling frameworks and factors and of what is still lacking in terms of data, standards, infrastructures, computing power, tools, knowledge and capacity for the CCSI to fully embrace the opportunities opened by AI is essential for effectively integrating AI technologies into CCSI practices and workflows. Proposals should assess the current level of AI readiness in the CCSI, investigate the specific barriers to AI adoption in the sectors, and highlight areas where AI can offer the most benefits. In continuous engagement with the sectors, based on the analysis of current practices and through concrete use cases, proposals should produce strategic guidance to extensively and seamlessly integrate AI into CCSI operations, enhancing efficiencies, averting risks, and facilitating cross-sector collaboration. Based on this analysis, they should develop a set of tailored tools designed to address the specific gaps and leverage the opportunities uncovered during the assessment. These tools should be strategically aligned with the sector's needs, ensuring they provide targeted solutions to enhance AI adoption and maximize its potential benefits. They should be scalable, affordable for smaller, less-resourced CCSI actors and accompanied by related documentation and training materials and documentation. Proposals should address one of the following two options, and are allowed to address both: Develop scalable pilots for innovative AI-enabled products and services across diverse segments of sectoral value chains, in cooperation with CCSI. These pilots are expected to address identified gaps in CCSI operations and prioritise solutions that catalyse innov Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Culture, creativity and inclusive society, Cultural Heritage Keywords: Artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, multi agent systems, Business models, Capacity building, Creativity management, Cultural heritage, cultural memory, Data and image processing, Digitalisation/ICT and cultural heritage, Entrepreneurship, Experimentally-driven research and innovation, High performance computing, Intangible cultural heritage, Knowledge transfer, Machine learning, statistical data processing and applications using signal processing (e.g. speech, image, video), Open innovation, Public administration, Social innovation, Tangible cultural heritage, Trustworthy ICT, Visual arts, performing arts, design, AI adoption, AI integration, CCSI, accessibility, audience engagement, automation, business models, capacity building, co-creation, content creation, creative industries, creative innovation, creators’ rights, cross-sector collaboration, cultural and creative sectors, cultural diversity, cultural inclusion., data-driven creativity, digital infrastructures, digital transformation, emerging jobs, ethical AI, federated data, heritage preservation, inclusive AI, innovation ecosystem, knowledge transfer, market reach, multilingual access, personalization, sustainable creative economy, sustainable models, underserved audiences, upskilling