The Amazon Research Awards AI for Information Security 2026 invites full-time faculty members at accredited academic institutions and permanent researchers at eligible non-governmental organisations to submit proposals for funded AI research addressing critical challenges in information security. Administered by Amazon, this research grant offers selected Principal Investigators up to USD $80,000 in unrestricted funds, up to USD $40,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, and direct access to training resources with Amazon scientists and engineers. The proposal submission deadline is May 6, 2026.
Program Highlights
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Opportunity Type | Research Grant |
| Organising Body | Amazon Research Awards (ARA) Program |
| Mode | Online Proposal Submission |
| Duration | Project-Dependent |
| Location / Platform | Global — Accredited Academic Institutions and Eligible NGOs |
| Last Date to Apply | May 6, 2026 |
About the Program
The Amazon Research Awards AI for Information Security 2026 forms part of Amazon’s broader Amazon Research Awards Program, which funds academic research aligned with Amazon’s strategic technical priorities across multiple disciplines. Notably, this specific call focuses exclusively on the intersection of artificial intelligence and information security — a domain of rapidly growing importance as AI-powered systems become embedded in enterprise, cloud, and critical digital infrastructure worldwide.
The program reflects Amazon’s stated goal of advancing solutions to some of the most technically demanding problems in information security. Consequently, the grant is structured to support rigorous, independent academic inquiry rather than commercially directed research — awards take the form of one-time unrestricted gifts, meaning recipients retain full academic freedom in how they conduct and publish their work. Furthermore, the inclusion of AWS Promotional Credits alongside unrestricted funds acknowledges that cutting-edge security research increasingly requires access to scalable cloud infrastructure.
For faculty researchers and NGO-based investigators working in AI, cybersecurity, machine learning, or adjacent computational fields, the Amazon Research Awards AI for Information Security 2026 provides both the financial resources and the institutional linkage — through direct access to Amazon scientists and engineers — that accelerate high-impact research outcomes.
Eligibility Criteria
Academic Qualification
- Must be a full-time faculty member at an accredited academic institution, or a permanent researcher at a non-governmental organisation with formally recognised legal status in its country (equivalent to 501(c)(3) status under the United States Internal Revenue Code)
- No specific degree-level restriction is stated beyond the requirement of holding a full-time faculty or permanent researcher position
- Open to researchers globally — no geographic restriction on institution location is specified
Experience & Other Conditions
- The Principal Investigator must be at or above the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence at the time of application
- Each Principal Investigator is permitted to submit only one proposal to the Amazon Research Awards Program per call for proposal period
- Proposed budgets must itemise all expected costs in USD and must not include administrative overhead costs
- The final award amount is determined by the awards panel — the figures stated represent averages, not guaranteed maximums
Benefits & Funding
Selected Principal Investigators receive a comprehensive award package structured as a one-time unrestricted gift, supplemented by cloud computing resources and direct access to Amazon’s technical expertise.
| Component | Amount / Detail |
|---|---|
| Unrestricted Research Funds | Up to USD $80,000 on average |
| AWS Promotional Credits | Up to USD $40,000 on average |
| Training Resources | AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers |
Topics / Themes Covered
Amazon seeks proposals that advance AI research in the following information security areas:
- Trustworthy and reliable agentic AI for security operations, including methodologies for evaluating AI agents in security use cases
- AI agent access governance — policy verification, guardrails, and conditionally scoped authentication and authorisation
- Threat, intrusion, and anomaly detection in agentic AI systems and cloud environments
- AI-powered incident response and red-teaming
- Vulnerability detection and remediation using agentic AI
- Building and optimising foundation models through pre-training, post-training, fine-tuning, and related techniques to improve performance on security tasks
- Security of agentic AI systems, including securing toolchains, frameworks, and addressing confused deputy issues in delegated agent behaviours
- Securing generative AI and foundation models — covering training data content security, anonymisation, semantic differential privacy, and prevention of data leakage from trained models
- Reinforcement learning for information security applications
- Scalable and efficient graph modelling and anomaly detection on graphs
- Learning with limited or noisy labels and weakly supervised learning
- AI for malware analysis and detection, with a focus on cloud environments or end devices
- AI-assisted secure code generation and security enhancement of existing codebases
- Generative AI for cloud infrastructure compliance
Selection Process
- Review of proposal alignment with the stated AI and information security research themes
- Assessment of budget reasonableness — all costs must be directly required to complete the proposed research project and must be specified in USD without administrative overhead
- Evaluation of technical merit and research impact by the Amazon awards panel
- Final award determination and notification — award amounts are confirmed by the panel and may vary from the stated averages
How to Apply
- Review the full list of research themes to confirm that your proposed project falls within one or more of the stated AI and information security focus areas.
- Prepare a detailed research proposal that clearly articulates the research objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and relevance to Amazon’s information security priorities.
- Develop a budget that itemises all expected project costs in USD, excluding administrative overhead. Ensure the budget reflects realistic and justified expenditure directly tied to research delivery.
- Access the official proposal submission portal via the Amazon AI for Information Security Call for Proposals page.
- Submit the completed proposal through the official online portal before May 6, 2026.
No application fee is required for this grant.
Important Dates
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Notification Release Date | April 7, 2026 |
| Last Date to Apply | May 6, 2026 |
Important Links
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Apply Online | Click Here |
| Official Website | Click Here |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible to apply for the Amazon Research Awards AI for Information Security 2026?
Eligibility is restricted to full-time faculty members at accredited academic institutions and permanent researchers at non-governmental organisations holding recognised legal status in their country — equivalent to 501(c)(3) classification under US tax law. Furthermore, all eligible Principal Investigators must be at or above the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence at the time of application.
What does the award package include beyond the research grant funds?
In addition to unrestricted research funds of up to USD $80,000 on average, selected Principal Investigators receive AWS Promotional Credits of up to USD $40,000 on average. Notably, the award also includes access to training resources — specifically AWS tutorials and hands-on technical sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers – providing direct engagement with industry expertise alongside the financial support.
Are the award amounts guaranteed maximums?
No. The figures of up to $80,000 in unrestricted funds and up to $40,000 in AWS credits represent averages, not guaranteed ceilings. Consequently, the final award amount for each selected proposal is determined by the Amazon awards panel based on its review of the submitted budget and research scope.
Can I submit multiple proposals in the same call period?
No. Each Principal Investigator is permitted to submit only one proposal per call for proposal period. Submitting multiple proposals as PI within a single call cycle is not permitted under the program rules.
What budget guidelines apply to the proposal?
The proposal budget must list all expected costs in USD and must directly correspond to activities required to complete the research project. Administrative overhead costs must not be included in the budget. The awards panel uses the submitted budget as a basis for determining the final award amount, so all line items should be reasonable, specific, and clearly justified.