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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.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: The principal investigator must be a full-time faculty member or researcher at a recognized institution, holding a position such as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, or equivalent researcher, and must be able to supervise PhD students. Co-principal investigators are permitted only if they are from the same institution and meet the same requirements. Awards provide up to 150,000 US dollars for focused collaborative research between the academic institution and Sony. Research areas for 2026 include 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, neural rendering, MicroLED devices, optical metasurfaces and device technologies. The 2026 application deadline is 15 September 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time, listed as 16 September 2026 12:29pm India Standard Time for applicants in India. Applications and submission guidelines are at https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/research-award-program/. Because this is a collaborative award, applicants should identify a relevant Sony research counterpart and confirm current areas, IP terms and eligibility details on the official program page before submitting. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows up to $150,000 USD per proposal (1 year, renewable). Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
The published deadline was September 15, 2026, which has passed. Check the official notice for any future application windows before investing time in a proposal.
Sony Research Award Program 2026 Focused Research Award for University Faculty Research in AI, Large Language Models, Robotics and Computer Vision is funded by Sony Corporation (Sony Research Award Program, Sony Group). 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.
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 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.
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.