Microsoft Azure for

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What is Microsoft Azure?

Tools for Research• Virtual Machines• Storage, backup, recovery• Big compute• SQL databases• Identity and access management• Application development• And more

Open and Flexible Supports any operating system, language , tool, and framework including Linux, Python, Java, Hadoop, and the Microsoft .NET Framework

Cloud Computing Platform Infrastructure for building, deploying and managing applications and services

Who is our Target Audience?

• Academic, government, and industry researchers

• Non-commercial researchers in academia across multiple disciplines, such as

computer science, biotechnology, genomics, urban sciences and climate change

“This project is a unique opportunity to put together ecologists and computer scientists, and develop new tools to analyze data and visualize big datasets.”

-Rafael Oliveira, Professor of Ecology, University of Campinas

VIEW CASE STUDY

“We wanted to combine the knowledge and the science of the academic community with the first response capabilities of our public safety entities. We had the tools and the ability—we just needed to put them together.”

-Harry Evans, Chief of Staff,Austin Fire Department

VIEW CASE STUDY

How Does Azure Help Researchers?

• Access quick experimentation without significant capital investment

• Recreate test environments in the cloud for boosted processing power

• Run multiple virtual machines to run parallel data simulations

• Store data captured by instruments or sensors in Azure Tables

• Share information between multiple applications with Azure Queues

• Build websites to communicate findings

• Extend the scope of research applications to mobile devices

• And more…

Microsoft Azure for Research Program

The Microsoft Azure for Research Program (A4R) helps researchers use the power of Azure to accelerate scientific discovery:

Award Programfor a free year

of Azure services

Hands-on training from specialized

Azure experts

Technical papers with in-depthinstructions

Case studiesdemonstrating Azure

use in the field

One-hour webinars demonstrating practical

uses of Azure in research

Online videos for quick,

on-demand training

Azure for Research Award ProgramMicrosoft awards a year of free Azure services to researchers looking to solve problems with cloud computing.

Winning proposals receive:

Up to 180,000 hours of free cloud computing time

20 TB of cloud storage resources

Training, tools, and resources

• Open call for proposals from any branch of scholarly activity

• Must be affiliated with an academic institution or non-profit research laboratory

• Proposals due on the fifteenth of even-numbered months:

• February• April• June• August• October• December

Azure for Research Award ProgramBi-Monthly RFPs

Learn more about submitting a proposal

Azure for Research Award ProgramSpecial-Opportunity RFPs

Microsoft periodically announces RFPs on specific cloud-based topics:

Topics announced on the Award Program page and the Microsoft Research Connections Blog

Community research data services Environmental science

Streaming instrument data to the cloud Astronomy

Machine learning in the cloud Genomics

Large-scale image analysis Urban science

Special-Opportunity ProposalsHealth and Wellbeing

Microsoft Azure Award for Ebola

For projects working toward a better understanding of the Ebola virus.

• Open call for proposals with ongoing reviews.

• Applications must include “Ebola” in the title

Learn more about the Azure Award for Ebola Research

Climate Data AwardAwarded to researchers supporting the White House Climate Action Plan.

• Deadline: February 15, 2015• Applications must include

“CDI” in the title

Food Resilience Climate Data AwardAwarded to researchers supporting the resilience of food sources to climate change.

• Deadline: February 15, 2015• Applications must include

“Agriculture” in the title

Special-Opportunity ProposalsEarth, Energy, and Environment

Learn more about the Food Resilience Climate

Data Initiative

Learn more about the Climate Data Initiative

Data Science Instructional Awards• Provides individual accounts for each

student in an intermediate or advanced data science class.

• 500GB of cloud data storage

• Deadline: February 15, 2015• Must include “Azure Machine

Learning Instruction” in the title

Shared Workspaces for Research Collaboration• Provides a workspace for a group of

researchers interested in using Azure to discover and share predictive models.

• 10TB of cloud data storage

• Deadline: February 15, 2015• Must include “Azure Machine

Learning Research” in the title

Special-Opportunity ProposalsAzure Machine Learning

Learn more about the Azure Machine Learning RFP

A4R Program Update

Biology Life Science

Virtual Machines

Countries 19

Universities 46

Students Registered 2580

Number of award winners around the world

163North America

17UK

36China

23APAC

96EMEA92

LATAM

Domains

Usage Training Sessions

Computer Science

Environmental Science

Earth Science Engineering

Data ServicesBusiness Analytics

Cloud Services

Storage

Learn more about the Azure for Research program.

Apply for the Azure in Research Award Program.

Power Your Research

Research Connections

Blog

Azure for Research Blog