Latin America PhD Award

The 2020 Microsoft Research Latin America PhD Award
submission period closes on April 15, 2020 at 5:00 PM PST.

Microsoft actively seeks to foster greater levels of diversity in our workforce and in our pipeline of future researchers. We are always looking for the best and brightest talent and celebrate individuality. We invite candidates to come as they are and do what they love.

Provisions of the award

Award recipients will receive $15,000 USD for academic year 2020–21 to help them complete research as part of their doctoral thesis work.
Microsoft will arrange and pay for travel and accommodations for award recipients to attend the PhD Summit. The two-day workshop will be held at one of the Microsoft Research labs in the fall. It will provide award recipients an opportunity to present their research, meet with Microsoft researchers in their research area and receive career coaching.

Eligibility criteria

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Students should support this mission and embrace opportunities to foster diverse and inclusive cultures within their communities.
PhD students must be enrolled at a university in Latin America and doing dissertation work that relates to computing topics in which Microsoft Research has expertise. Explore our website to learn more about these research areas.
PhD students must be in their third year or beyond in a PhD program to qualify for this award. Funding is for use only during their time in the PhD program; it cannot be used for support in a role past graduation, such as a postdoc or faculty position. Those interested in receiving this award will need to confirm their PhD program starting month and year, as well as their expected graduation month and year.
Payment of the award, as described above, will be made directly to the award recipient’s university and dispersed according to the university’s policies.
PhD students submitting a proposal should be able to communicate about their research (both in writing and verbally) in English.
Microsoft Research Latin America PhD Award recipients subject to disciplinary proceedings for inappropriate behavior, including but not limited to discrimination, harassment (including sexual harassment), or plagiarism will forfeit their funding.

How to apply

PhD students must individually submit the following information. You will need to collect all the information listed under each form before submitting them as you will not have the ability to save the details and return to the online forms. You must use the same email address in both forms.

1. Reference Letter form (student requests reference letters before April 15, 2020):

Contact information for two references (third one being optional) who are established researchers familiar with your research (at least one of which must be from your primary academic advisor/supervisor). We highly encourage you to reach out to your references and submit the reference letter form long before your proposal deadline. Microsoft will automatically provide instructions and request a reference letter from each of your reference contacts separately as you submit your proposal. The sooner you submit the reference letter form, the more notice they will receive to upload a letter before the deadline. Those auto-generated emails will be sent from Microsoft Research Grants (msrgrant@microsoft.com), which may end up in their spam folder. References will be asked to upload a letter in our online form. Note that all contacts must submit your reference letters by Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time in order for your proposal to be considered. Due to the number of submissions, we will not respond to questions asking if your references were submitted in time. You will receive an auto-generated confirmation email each time one of your references submits a letter. You may also log into your proposal to see if a letter has been received or not. It is your responsibility to follow up with your references.

2. Proposal form (student submits by April 15, 2020):

Curriculum vitae
Thesis proposal or research statement (short and concise is recommended—no more than two pages including references with font no smaller than 10-point)
One-page summary of the above thesis proposal or research statement
Month and year you entered the PhD program and your expected graduation date
Primary area of research (click on Research Areas at the top of the page for a full list)
Proposals must be submitted in English via the online application tool in any of the following formats: Word document, text-only file, or PDF. Email or hard-copy proposals will not be considered.
Proposals submitted to Microsoft will not be returned. Microsoft cannot assume responsibility for the confidentiality of information in submitted award proposals. Therefore, proposals should not contain information that is confidential, restricted, or sensitive.
Incomplete award proposals will not be considered.
Due to the volume of submissions, Microsoft Research cannot provide feedback individual feedback on proposals that do not receive the award.