Faculty Fellowship

Below are the answers to frequently asked questions about the 2021 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship.

Eligibility criteria

• What if I’m a faculty attending a university outside the Americas?

  The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship includes only schools from the Americas. If you are a faculty at a school outside North America or South America, you are not eligible for this fellowship.

• Do I have to be nominated by my university or can I nominate myself?

  To be considered for the award, you must be nominated by your university or a Microsoft Research lab member or a researcher within an applied research group in other parts of Microsoft. If you are nominated, you will be contacted to submit a proposal.

• Can Microsoft employees or their family members be nominated?

  Employees and directors of Microsoft Corporation, and its subsidiaries and affiliates are not eligible, nor are persons involved in the execution or administration of this fellowship, or the family members of each above (parents, children, siblings, spouse/domestic partners, or individuals residing in the same household).

Nominations

• Do the universities need to coordinate with Microsoft nominators so they do not nominate the same person?

  No, universities do not need to coordinate with Microsoft nominators. It is acceptable to nominate the same faculty.

• Is the limit on Microsoft nominators independent of the university limit on the number of individuals that can be nominated?

  Yes, the Microsoft limit is independent of the university limit.

• Who is meant to submit the nomination?

  The university can designate any staff other than the nominee to submit the nomination. The nomination simply needs to be a coordinated effort to ensure there are no more than three submissions from each university.

• Does the university have to submit a letter through the online tool as well in support of my nomination?

  No, we do not require a letter from the university.

• If the faculty’s research is already being funded, does it impact their eligibility for nomination and/or receiving the award?

  Not from our perspective.

Research areas

• How do I determine my primary and secondary research areas? Where is the appropriate place to describe how they relate to my work (whether it's methodologically or theoretically)?
  • Your choices of primary and secondary areas help us choose who reviews your proposal.
  • Pick areas that align with conferences/journals where you would publish.
  • The statement of research is the appropriate place to describe how research areas relate to your research.
• How do I choose which to pick for my research area if my research is very interdisciplinary?

  Microsoft Research is interdisciplinary, so it is something we understand. What you choose as a research area is a “soft” preference and will simply help us better route your proposal. Utilize the primary and secondary research area option to help capture and communicate your research area the best you can.

  Here are some suggestions and guiding questions to help you choose a research area:

  • Do you have a home conference? Are there one or two conferences you go to in a more specific area?
  • Who do you want to be reading your proposal?
  • Who would you want to network with? What area of research are they in?
  • Who would be most excited about my topic? What area of research are they in?
• How related does my work need to be to Microsoft Research?

  Your work should be of interest to Microsoft Research lab members or researchers within an applied research group in other parts of Microsoft; however, it doesn’t need to directly line up with an existing project or topic. It is important for your work to be related enough that Microsoft Research will be able to review it and have interest in supporting it. Microsoft Research is large, interdisciplinary, and covers a broad area — use the Our research tab above as a guideline for the areas we cover. When in doubt, we suggest you browse the webpages of Microsoft Research lab members and researchers within an applied research group in other parts of Microsoft who look like they may be related to your area and see if they have papers in the similar topics or publish in conferences you publish in and/or attend. If you find one or more such people that share these connections with you, then you can feel confident that your work is related enough to submit a proposal.

Letters of recommendation

• Who should write my letters of recommendation?

  Given you need three letters, it would be good to include a letter from one person who can speak about your current research and one person who has known you longer, even if it may not be in your current research area. The longer-term perspective is definitely important and valuable. The value of a letter is evaluating how you work, how you collaborate with people, and what your process is as a researcher. This transcends what your particular topic is. Keep in mind that one letter doesn’t have to address all things; across all three letters, we want to get a full picture of who you are over a longer term, but also insight into your recent work.

• Are you more interested in learning about technical and research specific aspects of my work, or are other things, such as outreach/other university activities of interest as well?

  The purpose of a letter of recommendation is to provide us with the bigger picture of what you are doing, how you work as a researcher, how you learn, how you approach projects, and how you collaborate with others. The letter will also provide us with insight from people who have been working with you and observing you for some amount of time.

• For the letters of recommendation, is it a system where you list the people and your system will ask those people?

  Those you provided as recommenders in our system will be sent an auto-generated email with instructions to upload their letters of recommendation.

Review process

• Who will review the proposals?

  Proposals will be reviewed by Microsoft Research lab members and researchers within an applied research group in other parts of Microsoft whose expertise covers a wide range of disciplines. After the first review, a selection of faculty will be invited to interview. Award recipients are chosen from those finalists.

• What are you looking for when you review my proposal?

  We look at how cutting edge your research is as well as the significance and impact of the research. We carefully read through your two-page statement of research, three letters of recommendation, and your CV to try to gauge this. Best paper and other top awards are not required, but are helpful signals. The two-page statement of research should include your major research initiatives, what makes your approaches especially innovative, and how you would use the funding and the impact it would have on your research.

• When will I know the outcome of the review process?

  Finalists will be contacted in early May about the virtual interview. Due to the volume of submissions, Microsoft cannot provide individual feedback on proposals.

• How many nominations were there last year?

  There were nearly 200 nominations submitted last year.

Award details

• If selected, when will my fellowship begin?

  Persons awarded a fellowship in June will receive their financial awards by September of that year. Microsoft sends payment directly to the university, who will disperse funds according to their guidelines. This award will be provided as an unrestricted gift with no terms and restrictions applied to it. No portion of these funds should be applied to overhead or other indirect costs.

• Are there any tax implications for me if I receive this fellowship?

  The tax implications for your award are based on the policy at your university and applicable tax laws.

• Will intellectual property be an issue if I am awarded a fellowship?

  The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship is not subject to any intellectual property (IP) restrictions.

• Is childcare an approved use of the award funding?

  Absolutely! There is no limit to the amount of your award that can be used for childcare.