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Think Big call for proposals — Spring 2025

Advancing the frontiers of science through transformative ideas.

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About this CFP

Amazon invites ambitious research proposals that align with our commitment to transformative innovation. Guided by our leadership principle to Think Big - looking around corners and creating bold direction that inspires results - we seek proposals across all scientific disciplines with visionary, pioneering ideas. While proposals must be grounded in rigorous scientific methodologies, we challenge researchers to transcend current paradigms and envision revolutionary applications.

This call specifically targets research that might be considered speculative or contains out-of-the-box thinking. We welcome proposals including, but not limited to, ideas that:

  1. Challenge fundamental assumptions in your field
  2. Propose novel frameworks for solving long-standing problems
  3. Could enable order-of-magnitude improvements over current approaches
  4. Have the potential to create new technical capabilities
  5. Could open unexplored frontiers in science and technology

This Think Big track complements our standard Amazon Research Awards program. If your Think Big idea aligns with an open Amazon Research Awards call for proposals, submit your proposal directly through that CFP. We welcome proposals here for all topics not covered by open Amazon Research Awards calls for proposal.

Timeline

Submission period: March 19 to May 7, 2025 (11:59PM Pacific Time).
Decision letters will be sent out by August 2025.

Award details

Selected Principal Investigators (PIs) may receive the following:

  1. Unrestricted funds, up to $100,000 USD
  2. AWS Promotional Credits, no more than $70,000 USD on average
  3. Training resources, including tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers

Awards are structured as one-time unrestricted gifts. The budget should include a list of expected costs specified in USD, and should not include administrative overhead costs. The final award amount will be determined by the awards panel.

Eligibility requirements

Please refer to the ARA Program rules on the Rules and Eligibility page.

Proposal requirements

Proposals should be prepared according to the proposal template. In addition, to submit a proposal for this CFP, please also include the following information:

  1. What fundamental challenge or paradigm does your research aim to transform? How does it break from conventional approaches in the field?
  2. What makes this idea potentially transformative rather than incremental? What assumptions or limitations of current approaches does it challenge?
  3. Why is now the right time to pursue this idea? What enabling factors or developments make it timely?
  4. What are key risks and how will you mitigate them?
  5. What are potential applications of your work to Amazon?

Selection criteria

Proposals will be evaluated on the transformative potential of the research, quality of the scientific content and the timeliness/readiness of the research to deliver breakthrough outcomes. We encourage research that uses machine learning tools, for example AWS AI/ML services (Amazon SageMaker, Amazon AI services, Amazon Bedrock) or novel hardware for AI/ML, such as Trainium and Inferentia.

    Expectations from recipients

    To the extent deemed reasonable, Award recipients should acknowledge the support from ARA. Award recipients will inform ARA of publications, presentations, code and data releases, blogs/social media posts, and other speaking engagements referencing the results of the supported research or the Award. Award recipients are expected to provide updates and feedback to ARA via surveys or reports on the status of their research. Award recipients will have an opportunity to work with ARA on an informational statement about the awarded project that may be used to generate visibility for their institutions and ARA.

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