Microsoft Accelerating Foundation Models Research Program Azure Compute Grants

Microsoft Accelerating Foundation Models Research Program Azure Compute Grants is sponsored by Microsoft. This program provides Azure AI compute credits to selected researchers to support access to state-of-the-art foundation models.

Accelerating Foundation Models Research - Microsoft Research Human-computer interaction Human language technologies Data platforms and analytics Programming languages & software engineering Security, privacy & cryptography Medical, health & genomics Technology for emerging markets Events & academic conferences Microsoft Research podcast Microsoft Research newsletter Mixed Reality & AI - Cambridge Mixed Reality & AI - Zurich Accelerating Foundation Models Research Engaging the broader community in reimagining computing research 2025 Responsible AI Transparency Report Breaking bonds, breaking ground: Advancing the accuracy of computational chemistry with deep learning Microsoft as customer zero: Empowering research teams with AI Ideas: Accelerating Foundation Models Research: AI for all Note : The Accelerating Foundation Models Research program has reached its conclusion.

These pages are maintained for reference and archival purposes. “AI is evolving faster than we ever thought possible, and the opportunities it’s opening up are mind-blowing. But this is more than shiny new tech; it’s about making a difference in the world.

That’s why we’re launching this program—to build a global network of researchers who are as diverse as the challenges we face. We’re not just talking about models and algorithms; we’re talking about crossing boundaries, be it language, culture, or academic fields, to tackle some really big issues. Simply put, we aim to ensure that AI isn’t just for the few, but a game-changer for us all.

” — Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research & Incubations Foundation models are fuelling a fundamental shift in computing research, natural sciences, social sciences and computing education itself.

And as industry-led advances in AI continue to reach new heights, we believe that a vibrant and diverse research ecosystem is essential to realizing the promise of AI to benefit each individual, organization and society worldwide.

Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) is a new research initiative where we are on a journey, working together with the broader academic research community, to explore different aspects of foundation models to accomplish three goals: Align AI with shared human goals, values, and preferences via research on models which enhances safety, robustness, sustainability, responsibility, and transparency, while ensuring rapid progress can be measured via new evaluation methods Improve human interactions via sociotechnical research which increases trust, human ingenuity, creativity, and productivity, and decreases the digital divide while reducing the risks of developing AI which does not benefit individuals and society Accelerate scientific discovery in via proactive knowledge discovery, hypothesis generation, and multiscale multimodal data generation AFMR is a global research network and a resource platform, which enables a network of researchers with different expertise to engage on solving together some of the greatest technical and societal challenges of tomorrow.

AFMR includes a grant program that provides access to state-of-the-art foundation models hosted on Microsoft Azure through Microsoft Azure AI services. Through AFMR our goal is to foster more collaborations across disciplines, institutions, and sectors, and to unleash the full potential of AI for a wide range of research questions, applications, and societal contexts.

To that effect we engage with the research community through Calls for Proposals, mind-swaps, workshops, conferences. Microsoft Research is now building on the momentum of this research via The Agentic AI Research and Innovation (AARI) initiative. AARI is not a new beginning, but a natural evolution of the foundation AFMR laid.

It extends the same spirit of openness, collaboration, and responsible innovation to a new era of intelligent systems—AI agents capable of reasoning, planning, and acting safely in complex environments expands this vision—focusing on the next frontier of agentic systems through Grand Challenges with the academic community and Microsoft Research.

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