Azure Cloud Credits for Research and Teaching
The University of Washington’s eScience Institute and UW Research Computing are partnering with Microsoft Azure to offer cloud computing credits to UW researchers – faculty, postdocs, or research staff) to be utilized for both research and teaching projects. Graduate and undergraduate students are also encouraged to reach out to the UW Research Computing Club for access to cloud computing resources for their own work.
We are seeking proposals for research projects in any discipline that fit either of these two categories:
- The research project is new and can take advantage of the Azure cloud computing resource. The project needs to have other necessary resources in place so that it can start as soon as the computing credits are awarded; OR
- The project is ongoing and the research team may or may not already be using Azure or other computing resources.
We’re also seeking proposals for teaching projects in any discipline that can take advantage of Azure. These include computing resources for undergraduate and graduate level for-credit courses, other short courses or workshops, and extracurricular research projects carried out by student clubs/teams with faculty mentoring. The lead teaching faculty or faculty mentors of student teams will need to be the Principal Investigators on the application and provide oversight for awarded projects.
Interested in using Azure credits for your research?
Award Information
Awarded credits must be used by June 30, 2024. Each research project can request up to $20,000 in credits. Each teaching project can request up to $10,000 in credits. The credits can be used for any Azure service. We will award up to $200,000 in credits in total. Selected projects will also have access to technical support from Microsoft and the eScience Institute for getting started in the cloud.
The award decisions will be based on both the scientific merit and suitability for cloud computing. We may be able to accept HIPAA-compliant projects, so please indicate this requirement on the application.
Who Can Apply?
Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-PIs should be faculty, postdocs, or research staff members at the University of Washington (including the Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma campuses). An individual may participate as PI/co-PI on only one proposal. Co-investigators, consultants and other personnel are not limited by this restriction. PIs/co-PIs on previously awarded projects through previous years’ solicitation are eligible to apply again.
For more information, please register to join an information session via Zoom:
– Thursday September 21, 2:00pm
– Monday September 25, 11:00am
If you missed the information sessions, you can access the slides here.
How to Apply
Proposals are being accepted on a rolling basis, however preference will be given to proposals received by EOD on October 9, 2023.
The proposal should contain:
- Project description (up to 2 pages) with a minimum of 10 point font;
- Research proposals should include specific aims, background, significance and innovation, and methods.
- Teaching proposals should include the description of the class, the curriculum outline, and the computing projects.
- Both research and teaching proposals should include a description of how the computing credits will be used, and documentation that any other resources needed for this project are in place (for example, grant award notification, personnel who would undertake the work, or course approval documentation).
- Project development timeline (up to 1 page) that shows the milestones for the project;
- Expected usage of the Azure resources (up to 1 page) – please use the Azure pricing calculator for this step;
- References (no page limit).
Review Criteria
Proposals will be reviewed based on their suitability for cloud computing resources, as well as specific criteria for research and teaching projects:
- Research proposals will be reviewed for the significance and innovation of the proposed research, the likelihood of success, impact to the research field, and potential for continuation (such as external funding or commercialization).
- Teaching proposals will be reviewed for the need for this resource, relevance and significance of the project to the class and the learning outcome, and the number of students who will benefit.
Still have questions?
For general questions, please contact Executive Director Sarah Stone at sstone3@uw.edu.
For questions specifically about Microsoft Azure, please contact Jon Badar at v-jonbadar@microsoft.com or Rob Fatland at rob5@uw.edu.