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Applications are currently being accepted for the Microsoft Research Fellowship 2026. Interested applicants are encouraged to click here to learn more about this opportunity and apply for it.
The Microsoft Research Fellowship seeks to create meaningful academic-industrial collaborations. Fellowship recipients will partner with Microsoft Research principal investigators and labs around the world, working on “open research challenges” that combine deep domain expertise from academia with the applied research and infrastructure strength of Microsoft Research.
The fellowship award is unrestricted: funds are given as a gift to the institution (not a salary or employment contract) and may support travel and other research-collaboration expenses.
Opportunity to collaborate directly with Microsoft Research researchers and labs, gaining industry-scale resources, access to global research infrastructure, and cross-disciplinary partnerships.
High visibility: being named a Microsoft Research Fellow may strengthen your research profile and network.
Flexibility: the award allows concurrent funding from other organizations (i.e., the fellowship does not restrict you from other support) according to FAQ.
The payment is made to the institution in March/April 2026 (for the 2026 cohort) and overhead/indirect costs are not required to be returned or accounted for in detail.
Applicants must be affiliated with a degree-granting university in one of the eligible regions (Africa; Australia & New Zealand; Canada; Europe; India; Hong Kong; Japan; South Korea; Singapore; Taiwan; Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Mexico; Puerto Rico; United States).
PhD students: must be actively pursuing a PhD at such a university and may submit proposals on their own behalf.
Post-docs: must be employed or enrolled at a degree-granting university in the eligible regions and the proposal must include support from a faculty advisor or department chair.
Faculty: must hold a terminal degree (e.g., PhD, DSc) and submit on their behalf; proposals must identify a student collaborator; both faculty and student must be from eligible institutions/regions.
Proposals must align with one of the defined research challenges listed by Microsoft Research. Each challenge may have additional eligibility specifics (e.g., some challenges may be open only to faculty, or only to PhD students).
Note: Fellows will be subject to background screening; inappropriate conduct (discrimination, harassment, plagiarism) will lead to forfeiture of funding.
Apply for Microsoft Research Fellowship
