The Innovation & Business Engagement (IBE) Hub and Office of Foundation Relations is pleased to share this open call for funding from Amazon Science for various Research Awards.
UCSC Contacts: Nathan Westrup| IBE |nwestrup@ucsc.edu, or Samantha Forde | FR | forde@ucsc.edu
Funder: Amazon Science
Deadline: November 5, 2025
Overview – Amazon Science Research Awards
- AI for Information Security Amazon aims to advance innovations that solve some of the most challenging problems in information security.
- Agentic AI AWS Agentic AI aims to advance agentic AI research by funding development of open-source tools and research that benefit the AI community at large, or impactful research related to agents.
- Automated Reasoning Amazon is committed to helping customers achieve the highest levels of security, availability, and robustness in the cloud. Automated reasoning, the application of mathematical logic to answer questions and prove properties, is used to increase assurance about critical computer systems.
- Build on Trainium: Responsible AI AWS Trainium is a purpose-built AI chip developed by AWS for accelerating building and deploying machine learning models.
- Cryptography Amazon’s mission is to provide customers with the world’s most secure computing environment.
- Cybersecurity and Anti-Abuse Technologies Amazon participates in a complex network – of individuals, processes, technologies, and organizations collaboratively safeguarding networks, devices, and data from cybersecurity threats.
- Sustainability Amazon seeks proposals that help optimize device life cycle energy consumption and product carbon footprint through innovative technical solutions. Of particular interest are projects that illustrate measurable impact reduction in device manufacturing phase through supply chain decarbonization innovations or use phase through energy efficient compute or AI-assisted optimization techniques.
- Think Big Amazon invites ambitious research proposals that align with their commitment to transformative innovation. While proposals must be grounded in rigorous scientific methodologies with practical or scalable solutions, researchers should transcend current paradigms and envision revolutionary applications.
Please refer to the List of FAQs for questions.
Award Amount & Terms
- Unrestricted cash funds (up to $100,000 – see opportunity description)
- AWS Promotional Credits (up to $70,000 – see opportunity description)
- Training resources, including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers
Eligibility
Please refer to the ARA program rules on the rules and eligibility page.
Timeline
- Applications due: November 5, 2025 (11:59PM Pacific Time)
- Decision letters sent: February 2026
Special Instructions
Please notify the Office of Foundation Relations if you are interested in applying to this opportunity (fr@ucsc.edu). Please submit a proposal intake form prior to UCSC’s internal Institutional Deadlines. For support developing your proposal, please contact the Research Development Specialist or send a request to resdev@ucsc.edu. Within the Division of Social Sciences, please contact Ashlee Tews (ashleeac@ucsc.edu).
Call sent: October 15, 2025
The Office of Foundation Relations is a unit of University Advancement. The FR team creates and maintains mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with private organizations, matching grant initiatives with educational and research programs and centers. FR supports faculty and staff to identify and approach these and other private foundations for funding, to assist in strategic positioning of the grant application, and to facilitate funder campus visits. For a list of recent funding opportunities, please visit the FR website: FR Calls for Funding.