I've started interacting with Evelyne Viegas lately and I have found that we are thinking alike when it comes to semantics. I am really looking forward to working with her more closely to advance the agenda within Microsoft. I think we can do great stuff together, especially now that we are part of the same extended team (External Research within Microsoft Research).
Evelyne just announced an interesting Request for Proposals that she is driving. The model that her group (External Research Programs) is different from what we do in Technical Computing, in terms of the level of funding. Our two approaches are complementary. Evelyne's call is an exciting opportunity to further advance our understanding in the semantics space (please, don't think just 'Semantic Web'... when I think about this space my mind goes to microformats, machine learning, knowledge representation, folksonomies, knowledge inference, etc. etc.). So, start writing those proposals!
Microsoft Research is pleased to announce a new worldwide Request for Proposals (RFP): Beyond Search - Semantic Computing and Internet Economics. For full details, guidelines, and instructions, please visit http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/fundingopps/RFPs/BeyondSearch_RFP.aspx
This Request for Proposals is done in partnership with Microsoft adCenter in support of its collaboration with the academic research community.
Submission deadline
The RFP due date is November 1, 2007, 5pm PDT (-8 UTC/GMT)
Awards
The total amount available under this request for proposals (RFP) is $1,000,000. Microsoft anticipates making approximately 20 awards averaging $50,000, with a maximum of $100,000 for any single award.
RFP highlights
To advance academic research and publication in the area of Internet Research and, in particular in data mining, information finding, information supply, and internet economics, Microsoft intends to make available to the RFP awardees a Microsoft adCenter Search query log excerpt with 100 million search queries along with ad click logs sampled over a few months, and a Live Search query log excerpt with 15 million search queries with per-query search result click-throughs. In addition, Microsoft adCenter will provide advertiser accounts to all winners.
This RFP has two tracks:
- Track 1 - Semantic Computing
- Track 2 - Internet Economics
Microsoft encourages proposals for either track which describe innovative research using the adCenter, Live Search, and SDK assets in bold, novel, and unconventional approaches to further Internet Research and related technologies, including interdisciplinary research.