Introduction

Amazon Research Awards (ARA) is a program that provides funding to researchers working in the field of cryptography. The program aims to support research that has the potential to impact Amazon's mission of providing customers with the world's most secure computing environment. ARA is structured as one-year unrestricted gifts, with a maximum average award of $80,000 USD in unrestricted funds and $20,000 USD in AWS Promotional Credits.

Scope of Work

ARA seeks proposals in the following areas:

• Primitives and protocols

• Formal proof of security properties for cryptographic primitives

• Practical optimizations for cryptographic transport protocols

• Cryptanalysis of standard algorithms and protocols

• Wide-block ciphers and new efficient symmetric encryption modes based on existing primitives

• MPC-friendly symmetric primitives

• Novel cryptographic constructions using quantum resistant primitives, including threshold signatures and oblivious pseudo-random functions

• Open source and verification

• Formal, static verification of open source cryptographic software, including verification of freedom from side-channel attacks

• Verified optimization of cryptographic code, particularly for 64-bit x86, Armv8.x, and Armv9.x ISAs and their associated micro-architectures

• Verification of randomized algorithms

• Theory and novel applications

• Fundamental research of the feasibility of a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer

• Addressing adversarial behavior in the AI space, including watermarking and provenance mechanisms for AI-generated content

• Improved practical FHE bootstrapping algorithms for cloud environments

• Compilers and development tools for FHE and MPC

• A production-quality math library for FHE

• Architectures and protocols for cloud-based collaboration of multiple organizations

Budget and Duration

ARA funding is structured as one-year unrestricted gifts. The budget should include a list of expected costs specified in USD, and should not include administrative overhead costs. The final award amount will be determined by the awards panel.

Additional Information

Award recipients are expected to acknowledge the support from ARA and provide updates and feedback to ARA via surveys or reports on the status of their research.

Key Dates

Submission period: September 25, 2024 - November 6, 2024 (11:59PM Pacific Time)

Decision letters will be sent out February 2025

Application Process

Proposals should be prepared according to the proposal template and answer the following questions:

• Does your work target theory or application? Please provide information about your specific domain.

• What are the current applications of your work?

• What are potential applications of your work to Amazon?

• What assumptions are made by your work? What are issues that may invalidate the trustworthiness of results?

• If your work involves the development and maintenance of a tool:

  • Under what license is your tool released?

  • What training and tutorial material is available?

  • Is your tool actively maintained (commits within last 3 months)? How many active contributors does your project have?

Selection Process

ARA funding decisions will be based on potential impact to Amazon and the development of the scientific community in cryptography. Amazon's commitment to developing the scientific community includes increasing the number of students working on cryptography at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We are also committed to increasing the diversity of the cryptography community at all levels. We particularly welcome proposals that further these goals.

Contact Information

For any questions, please contact the ARA team at research-awards@amazon.com.

Reporting Requirements

Award recipients will inform ARA of publications, presentations, code and data releases, blogs/social media posts, and other speaking engagements referencing the results of the supported research or the Award.

For More funding Opportunities, Visit Global Funding Opportunities.