Tokyo, Japan— Sony Group Corporation (Sony) announced today that it will begin calling for research proposals for the Sony Research Award Program on July 15, 2023. The Sony Research Award Program is an open innovation program, providing sponsored research funding for projects on emerging and innovative technologies in collaboration with Sony Group's own research groups. Currently in its eighth year, the program is open to universities and research institutions such as government research institutes and nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Canada, 17 European countries*1 and India.

The Sony Research Award Program is comprised of two awards - the Faculty Innovation Award and the Focused Research Award. The awards create new opportunities for academics to engage in cutting-edge research, leading to the introduction of breakthrough technologies.

• The Faculty Innovation Award grants up to $100,000 USD to principal investigators for one year*2, for research projects that may fall within three broad subject categories (Information Technology, Devices & Materials, and Biomedical & Life Sciences) relevant to Sony's current research interests.
• The Focused Research Award provides support for up to $150,000 USD for one year*2, to conduct research on 12 themes which is more focused in the areas of Sony's immediate interest.

For more information about the awards, as well as the submission guidelines, please visit.

• SONY RESEARCH AWARD PROGRAM

• *1European countries included in the program are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom.
• *2With the possibility of an extension.

Comment from Hiroaki Kitano, Senior Executive Vice President and CTO,
Sony Group Corporation

"Sony's Purpose is to 'Fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology,' and our mission for research and development (R&D) is to 'Push our civilization forward and make this planet sustainable.' Across various fields of our civilization and society, collaboration with external research institutions and academia is essential for Sony to develop technologies that enable creators to unleash their full creative potential and connect with diverse users. We believe that the Sony Research Award Program offers important opportunities for collaboration between researchers around the world and the Sony Group, to develop breakthrough technologies and innovations for a better future."

Comment from the award recipients

Professor Zhou Yu, Columbia University (New York, U.S.)

"It was such a pleasant experience working with Sony for the past three years. The synergy between our academic rigor and Sony's industry experience creates a powerful combination that fosters groundbreaking research and propels us closer to real-world applications. This partnership not only enhances the quality and relevance of our research but also opens doors to potential future collaborations, knowledge sharing, and access to state-of-the-art resources. Working hand in hand with Sony fuels our passion for advancing Natural Language Processing and contributes to the broader academic and technological communities, paving the way for transformative advancements in dialogue understanding, planning, and generation."

Professor Stephen Morris, University of Oxford (Oxford, U.K.)

"Receiving a Sony Research Award has been transformative for our research group. Being able to engage directly with researchers from Sony has enabled us to make great strides forward in terms of the application of our direct laser writing technique to the manufacture of liquid crystal display devices and related technologies. Through our collaboration, we have been able to tailor our simulations and experiments to align with current technology-limiting challenges, and at the same time unlock new scientific discoveries."

Professor Arpita Patra, Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru, India)

"Collaborating with Sony has opened up avenues for considering real-world deployment of secure multiparty computation-based solutions to design efficient protocols for privacy-preserving recommendation systems. The team at Sony has discussed and shared possible use-cases that are relevant in practice which has allowed us to design tailor-made protocols as required for the underlying application scenarios. The financial support provided by Sony has allowed me to onboard talented young minds, and I believe the program is much needed to bridge the gap between theory and practice."