Microsoft Security AI RFP

Collaborative Research Proposal Requirements

The deadline for proposal submissions has now passed.

Microsoft shall have no obligation to maintain the confidentiality of any submitted proposals. Therefore, proposals should not contain information that is confidential, proprietary, restricted, or sensitive. Proposals will be evaluated by a panel of subject-matter experts chosen from Microsoft. Microsoft reserves the right to make the winning proposals publicly available, except those portions containing budgetary information.

Length

The proposal should not be more than seven pages in length of Times New Roman 11-point font. Any documentation beyond that length will not be included as part of the proposal review.

The seven-page limit includes the cover page but the proposal can start on the cover page if additional space is needed. Scholarly references/bibliography can be submitted in addition to the seven pages and will not count toward the seven-page limit.

Cover page

The proposal should have a cover page that provides the following information:

• Biographical information and contact information: This should include a brief description of any relevant prior research, publications, or other professional experience.
  • Faculty with deep technical experience related to the research areas described above are encouraged to apply. Indicate estimated level of effort/amount of time each faculty member will spend on the project.
  • Post-doctoral researchers and mid- to late-stage PhD students with deep technical experience related to the research should be included in proposals. Indicate the estimated level of effort/amount of time each post-doctoral researcher and PhD student will spend on the project.
• Project proposal abstract: The abstract should contain the following:
  • A nontechnical description of the project that states the problem to be studied and explains the project’s broader significance and importance.
  • A technical description of the project that states the goals and scope of the research, and the methods and approaches to be used.

Proposal body:  The proposal body should include the following information:

• Project description: Include what set of questions based on the identified research scenarios above, will be addressed and how they will be addressed. Describe how answering these questions will help advance the state-of-the-art in security research.
• Approach: Describe the methodological and theoretical approach that the researchers will use. Explain exactly how the researchers will go about answering the question. Describe how the researchers will handle the legal and ethical challenges of doing work in this area. This section should also describe how the university MSecAI team proposes to work with Microsoft counterparts (researchers and engineers) to ensure an effective and positive collaboration.
• Resources: Proposals should specify if and how Microsoft technologies will be used, namely (1) APIs, (2) Data sets, etc. if applicable.
• Expected results: Briefly describe what new knowledge is likely to be generated as a result of this research, why these results would be significant, and how this could benefit information workers of tomorrow.
• Related research: Briefly summarize related research, including references where appropriate.
• Researcher roles: Describe the role of each researcher involved in the project and explain how their skills and knowledge enable them to address the proposed research.
• ~12-18-month Timeline/Workplan and Schedule: Describe what milestones will be used to measure progress of the project during the year and when they will be completed. If the project is part of a larger ongoing research program, estimate the time for completion of this project only. It is expected that the award will be made on or after June 18, 2021. Project timelines should reflect starting times on or shortly after this date.
• Use of funds: Provide a budget (in U.S. dollars) describing how the award will be used. The budget should be presented as a table with the total budget request clearly indicated. Microsoft will consider requests for Azure credits necessary to conduct research. Value of Azure credits will not be considered a part of the budget request. Azure requests should be included in the budget table.
• Other support: Include other contributions to this project (cash, goods, and services) by your university or other sources, if any, but do not include the use of university/organization facilities that are otherwise provided on an ongoing basis. Describe other grants or funded research that may be leveraged to add value to this research effort. Note: authors of the selected proposal will be required to submit an original letter on their institution’s letterhead, certifying the commitment of any additional or matching support described in the proposal.