At Google, we are committed to developing new technologies to help our users find, use, and create information. While we do significant in-house research and engineering, we also maintain strong ties with academic institutions worldwide pursuing innovative research in core areas relevant to our mission.
To apply, please fill out the Google Earth Engine Research Award application form. Applicants will be notified of decisions in April 2016.
The Google Earth Engine Research Awards Program aims to identify and support world-class, permanent faculty pursuing cutting-edge research in the area of geospatial data analysis. A full list of previous recipients is available here.
Google Earth Engine Research Awards are one-year awards structured as unrestricted gifts to universities to support the work of world-class permanent faculty members at top universities around the world. Recipients are selected through a comprehensive internal review process and notified of their awards within 3 months of the initial submission. Faculty members can apply for up to 150,000 USD in eligible expenses, but awards typically range between 40,000 and 70,000 USD. Actual award amounts are frequently less than the full amount requested. Most awards are funded at the amount needed to support basic expenses for one graduate student for one year. Please see our FAQs for more details on eligibility and budgets.
Each funded project will be assigned a Google sponsor. The role of the sponsor is to support the project by discussing research directions, engaging with professors and students, and overseeing collaboration between the project team and Google. We encourage Earth Engine Research Awards recipients to visit Google to give talks related to their work and meet with relevant research groups here. Through the Earth Engine Research Awards program, we try to fund projects where collaboration with Google will be especially valuable to the research team.
To apply for an award, faculty members should use the following general guidelines for proposal submission. More details are available in our FAQ. Please read the information below, as well as our FAQs, carefully.
The main proposal section is comprised of 4 parts: An overview, a proposal body, a data policy, and a budget. The maximum length of the entire proposal section, including references, is 3 pages. In addition to the 3 page proposal, we require a CV from the primary PI and allow the inclusion of CV’s from CO-PIs. The maximum length for each CV is 2 pages. For PIs (and co-PIs) who have been funded by Google in the past, in addition to the 4 parts listed above, we also require a brief (1/2 page maximum) summary of the results of past projects funded by Google. This section does not count toward the three-page proposal limit.
Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for more details on the program, as well as clarifications on eligibility, proposal format, timelines, and logistics.