VentureBeat: ‘Microsoft’s AI for Earth Innovation Grant gives data scientists access to AI tools’

Microsoft and National Geographic are teaming up to support data scientists who are tackling the 'world's biggest challenges.' The two companies today announced the AI for Earth Innovation Grant program, a $1 million grant that'll provide recipients financial assistance, access to AI tools and cloud services, and more to advance conservation research.

The grant program, which is accepting applications until October 8, will support between five and 15 projects in five core areas: agriculture, biodiversity, conservation, climate change, and water. In addition to funding, researchers will gain access to Microsoft's AI platform and development tools, inclusion in the National Geographic Explorer community, and affiliation with National Geographic Labs, National Geographic's research incubation and accelerator initiative.

'[I]n Microsoft, we found a partner that is well-positioned to accelerate the pace of scientific research and new solutions to protect our natural world,' Jonathan Baillie, chief scientist and executive vice president at the National Geographic Society, said in a statement. 'With today's announcement, we will enable outstanding explorers seeking solutions for a sustainable future with the cloud and AI technologies that can quickly improve the speed, scope, and scale of their work, as well as support National Geographic Labs' activities around technology and innovation for a planet in balance.'

The aim is to make trained algorithms broadly available to the global community of environmental researchers, Lucas Joppa, Microsoft's chief environmental scientist, said in a press release.

'Microsoft is constantly exploring the boundaries of what technology can do, and what it can do for people and the world,' Joppa said. 'We believe that humans and computers, working together through AI, can change the way that society monitors, models, and manages Earth's natural systems. We believe this because we've seen it - we're constantly amazed by the advances our AI for Earth collaborators have made over the past months. Scaling this through National Geographic's … network will create a whole new generation of explorers who use AI to create a more sustainable future for the planet and everyone on it.'

Selected recipients will be announced in December.

The AI for Earth Innovation Grant is an expansion of Microsoft's AI for Earth program, announced in June 2017. In December, the Redmond company committed $50 million to an 'extended strategic plan' that includes providing advanced training to universities and NGOs and the formation of a 'multi-disciplinary' team of AI and sustainability experts.

Microsoft claims that in the past two years, the AI for Earth program has awarded more than 35 grants globally for access to its Azure platform and AI technologies.