DiCaprio Foundation/Microsoft 2019 AI for Earth Innovation Grant

Application Deadline: July 31st 2019

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) aims to create a world where both nature and humanity coexist in harmony. Over the past twenty years, LDF has awarded over $100 million in grants, funding 200+ high-impact projects in 50 countries across Asia, the Americas, Africa, the Arctic, Antarctica, and all five oceans.

LDF has achieved this success through active collaboration with a broad network of effective organizations to find and support the best, results-driven projects in the world’s most wild and threatened ecosystems.

Microsoft’s AI for Earth program supports organizations who are working to solve global environmental challenges using artificial intelligence.

To further their missions, LDF and Microsoft are collaborating on the AI for Earth innovation grant to support applicants in creating and deploying open source machine learning models, algorithms, and data sets that directly tackle environmental problems faced by the world today.

AI for Earth Innovation Grant Priorities:

With the latest IPCC Special Report outlining the level and urgency of broad action required to prevent global temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees, we would like to request a call for proposals that can deliver impactful solutions to immediate matters in the following four categories:

· Climate change
· Biodiversity conservation
· Agriculture
· Water

Applications that also include the following will be prioritized for review:

· Demonstration that the work will lead to implementation of proposed solution (whether directly by applicant or in collaboration with others);

· Solutions that are developed in and/or will be implemented in developing countries or underserved geographies;

· Solutions that demonstrate ability to rapidly scale and create lasting impact.

Details:

Proposal requests can be up to $100,000, for support over one year only. In addition to financial support, successful proposals will receive free access to AI for Earth API’s, applications, tools, and tutorials, and support for their computational work on Microsoft Azure. Applicants must demonstrate a plan for continued support of the work beyond the grant period.

Project Requirements:

All models supported through this grant must be open source, and grant recipients must be willing to share their models for use by other environmental researchers and innovators. More specifically: 

(1) Grant recipients must make their solutions available for publication on the AI for Earth website through a designated open source license; 

(2) Grant recipients must make the training data on which their solutions are developed publicly available in standard digital format; 

(3) Grant recipients must include with their solutions a standard description template, including information on the machine learning data on which the solution was trained, summary statistics about solution performance, example use cases, and a disclaimer about the prototype nature of the solution; and 

(4) Grant recipients must implement and deploy their solutions on Microsoft Azure.

Applicant Qualifications:

Applicants must be nonprofit organizations or academic institutions. We recommend that the main applicant has a demonstrated background in environmental science and/or technology, and we require that at least one member of the team has strong enough technical skills (such as machine learning, statistical data analysis, scientific modeling, software development, and/or remote sensing) to complete the proposed project successfully.

We believe great ideas spring from a diversity of experiences, and thus encourage applications from all over the world.

Timelines:

The AI for Earth innovators grant will begin accepting applications beginning May 21, 2019. The application period will close on July 31 2019 at 11:59pm PST. Only applications received during this period will be accepted.

Applicants will be reviewed and awarded within 2-3 months of application close. It is anticipated that the selected projects will commence on January 1, 2020 and will be completed by December 31, 2020.

Please note this RFP application, deadline, and anticipated project timeline is different from other LDF grant programs.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the DiCaprio Foundation/Microsoft 2019 AI for Earth Innovation Grant