Microsoft is seeking projects to engage with as part of a new Deep Partnership opportunity within the National Artificial Intelligence Resource Research (NAIRR) Pilot. This initiative aims to advance science and discovery through the use of AI. Microsoft plans to support up to three grand challenge projects, each of which will receive Azure credits valued up to $3.5 million USD, to be used by June 15, 2026. All projects will receive access to Microsoft Discovery, their enterprise agentic platform to accelerate research and development as well as onboarding support and support from domain experts. Credits may also be used for Microsoft Azure services, including Azure HPC and AI Foundry models.
While all proposals are welcome, the Microsoft Discovery team is particularly interested in partnerships within the following three grand challenge areas:
- Accelerating Drug Discovery and Development
- Accelerating the Discovery of Novel Materials
- Advancing chip design through trustworthy agentic systems
Grant recipients should also be prepared to publish their project results in the open scientific literature or otherwise disseminate them publicly, make all project assets publicly available to the extent possible, and participate in follow-up interview(s) to discuss their experiences and share their insights and learning.
To learn more about these grand challenges and to submit your proposal, please visit: https://nairrpilot.org/opportunities/deep-partnerships. Proposals will be accepted through September 15, 2025.
