Sony – Faculty Innovation Award (2026)

Up to $100,000 for Pioneering University and Research Institute Projects

The Sony Faculty Innovation Award supports pioneering academic research that could contribute to future technologies, products, creative tools, and business applications. Through the program, Sony seeks to establish collaborative relationships with faculty members and researchers working in areas aligned with the company’s global research and development priorities.

Selected projects may receive up to $100,000 for a one-year research period. The 2026 program includes research opportunities related to artificial intelligence, computer vision, robotics, entertainment technology, sports technology, RF sensing, audio and language processing, Micro LED devices, optical systems, and other emerging technologies.

Organization: Sony Group Corporation
Support Type: Sponsored research award
Geographic Focus: United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and eligible European countries
Application Deadline: September 15, 2026
Maximum Award: $100,000

About the Funder

Sony is a global technology and entertainment company operating across electronics, gaming, music, film, imaging, sensing, and financial services.

Through the Sony Research Award Program, the company partners with universities, educational institutions, and research institutes to support cutting-edge academic research. The program is intended to cultivate advanced concepts, expand Sony’s research capacity, and establish collaborations between academic researchers and Sony scientists.

A previous relationship with Sony is not required to apply.

What This Program Supports

The Faculty Innovation Award supports one-year research projects aligned with one of Sony’s designated keywords.

Applicants must select the single most relevant keyword for their proposal. The application form also allows applicants to provide additional keywords describing the research.

Many of the program’s research areas envision potential applications involving creator tools, creative technologies, entertainment experiences, and technologies that connect with users and creators.

Research opportunities fall within three primary areas:

• Information Technology
• Entertainment Technology
• Device Technology

Information Technology Research Areas

Affective Computing

• Affective or cognitive state estimation with context
• Emotion regulation using an AI agent
• Motion-robust remote vital sensing
• Neural mechanisms of motion sickness and cybersickness

Audio, Music, Speech, and Language Processing

• Multimodal approaches for advanced spatial audio

Cloud and Edge Systems

• Distributed system infrastructure frameworks
• Real-time multi-agent LLM vision systems
• Software development processes in the LLM era
• Terascale LLM software development and quality assurance

Communication Technologies

• AI-assisted quality-of-experience enhancement for Wi-Fi
• AI-based ray tracing for channel modeling
• Deterministic Wi-Fi with multi-access-point coordination
• Non-terrestrial networks
• Use-case-driven network optimization through Open RAN
• Wi-Fi systems for space environments
• Wi-Fi transformation for AI traffic

Computer Vision

• 4D representations for physical AI
• Co-design of sensors and physical AI
• Culture-dependent reasoning in vision-language models
• Data-efficient RGB-X learning
• Embodied world models with multimodal sensing
• Lightweight performance predictors for model optimization
• Sensor-aware, minimal-footprint neural imaging
• Ultra-low-power and low-bandwidth sensing
• Vision model design using large language models
• World models for humanoid systems

Human Sensing and Interaction

• Haptic sensing and interaction technologies
• Human-object and hand-object interaction
• Interactive content creation

Linux Systems

• Cyber resilience for embedded Linux
• Embedded Linux security assessment methods
• Hardening Linux through external technologies
• Open-source software license verification techniques and methods

Machine Learning

• Controllable character representations for cross-domain animation
• Coordinated motion generation for multi-character interaction
• Dexterous object interaction for virtual characters
• Monocular 3D human pose and mesh recovery
• Physics-based character interaction with perception
• Style-agnostic representations for avatar control

RF Sensing

• AI-based indoor propagation analysis for RF sensing
• Radar-centered in-cabin occupant condition sensing
• Self-supervised learning for RF sensing

Robotics

• Vision-language-action systems for physical and virtual agents

Security

• Anti-piracy, anti-leakage, and their economics
• Efficient graph structures in Web3

Software Development Technology

• Software architecture analysis in large projects

Entertainment Technology Research Areas

Audio, Music, Speech, and Language Processing

• Automatic evaluation for multilingual expressive text-to-speech systems
• Cross-lingual expressive voice cloning with natural prosody
• Video-grounded, long-context LLM agents for translation

RF Sensing

• Emotion and behavior prediction using radar
• RF-based interaction sensing for entertainment experiences

Robotics

• Digital twins for expressive interactive characters

Sports Technology

• Sports technology for injury prevention
• Sports technology for physical and cognitive performance

Visual and Visualization Technologies

• Automated content generation
• Digital humans, including capture, modeling, rigging, animation, rendering, hair modeling, and cloth simulation
• Generative AI for content creation
• Interactive material visualization using multiple areas of physics
• Light field processing
• Neural rendering and reconstruction
• Physical AI for content creation
• Volumetric video processing

Device Technology Research Areas

Micro LED Devices

• High-efficiency red Micro LEDs
• MicroLED-based optical interconnects
• Monolithic RGB and single-chip architecture
• Optical extraction and resonant structures

Optical Metasurface Design Theory and Frameworks

• Design enhancement using physics-informed artificial intelligence or deep learning
• Image-quality-centered design optimization
• Metasurface spaceplates for compact lens systems

RF Sensing

• Energy-efficient RF transceiver and receiver design
• Joint optimization of radar waveforms and signal processing

Spatial Light Modulators

• Two-dimensional array tunable metasurface light modulators

Eligible Applicants

Applications must be submitted by a Principal Investigator who meets Sony’s eligibility requirements.

Eligible Principal Investigators must:

• Be affiliated with a university, educational institution, or governmental or nonprofit research institute
• Hold a full-time professor or researcher position
• Be eligible to supervise Ph.D. students at their institution

Eligible academic appointments include:

• Full professors
• Associate professors
• Assistant professors
• Eligible full-time researchers
• Senior lecturers, principal lecturers, lecturers, and readers in the United Kingdom who are authorized to supervise Ph.D. students

Adjunct professors, adjunct researchers, and professors emeriti are not eligible because the program requires a full-time appointment.

Eligible Countries

The Principal Investigator’s institution must be located in one of the following countries:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Canada
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States

Co-Principal Investigators

Proposals may include one or more Co-Principal Investigators.

However:

• All Co-PIs must be from the same institution as the Principal Investigator
• All Co-PIs must meet the same eligibility requirements as the PI
• Co-PIs from other universities or institutions are not permitted
• Only one award will be made to the PI and the PI’s institution
• All Co-PIs will be required to sign applicable program documents

Third-party researchers from other institutions may not be included as paid advisors or consultants under the sponsored research agreement.

Funding Amount

The Faculty Innovation Award provides:

Up to $100,000 for a one-year research project

The award is made as a single, all-inclusive payment under a sponsored research agreement.

The budget may include:

• Research personnel
• Ph.D. student support
• Equipment and supplies
• Direct research expenses
• Institutional overhead and indirect costs
• Other costs necessary to conduct the proposed research

Sony does not establish a maximum percentage for indirect costs. However, all overhead, fees, and expenses must be included within the $100,000 maximum award.

Awards may be paid in U.S. dollars or the applicable currency of the participating institution’s country.

Project Period

Proposals must cover a one-year research period.

Multi-year proposals will not be accepted. Sony may consider extending a successful research collaboration into a subsequent year, but any continuation would require a separate discussion and award.

Required Deliverables

At a minimum, selected researchers will be expected to provide:

• Three quarterly progress reports
• A final research summary report
• Responses to a research progress questionnaire

Sony may establish additional deliverables based on the nature of the selected project.

Proposal Requirements

The proposal must include:

• Project title
• Abstract
• Research methods
• Goals and milestones
• References
• One primary Faculty Innovation Award keyword
• Explanation of how the research differs from the current state of the art
• Principal Investigator’s email address
• Principal Investigator’s telephone number, including country code
• One-page budget summary

Applicants are encouraged to identify one or two potential applications or use cases for the proposed technology, particularly when the connection to Sony’s products, technologies, creators, or business areas may not be immediately apparent.

Proposal Format

The complete proposal may not exceed 11 pages, consisting of:

• A maximum 10-page proposal, including references
• A one-page budget summary

The proposal must:

• Be submitted as a PDF
• Be under 16 MB
• Use a minimum font size of approximately 10 points
• Be written in English

The Principal Investigator’s CV must be uploaded as a separate PDF file. There is no page limit for the CV, but the file must be under 16 MB.

When a proposal includes Co-PIs, the PI and Co-PI CVs should be combined into one PDF, with the Principal Investigator’s CV appearing first.

Research Agreement and Intellectual Property

This opportunity is structured as sponsored research rather than a traditional unrestricted charitable grant.

Before funding is released, Sony, the Principal Investigator, and the participating institution must enter into a mutually acceptable sponsored research agreement covering matters such as:

• Research objectives
• Project milestones
• Publications
• Use of research results
• Patent rights
• Intellectual property

Sony requires the right to use sponsored research results for noncommercial purposes. Applicants must also have the authority to provide Sony with the required rights to any background intellectual property necessary to use those results.

Institutions should review the program’s intellectual property requirements before submitting a proposal.

Confidentiality Considerations

Applicants should not include confidential, proprietary, or commercially sensitive information in their proposals.

Sony will treat information included in submitted proposals as non-confidential and non-proprietary.

Multiple Applications

There is no overall limit on the number of proposals that may be submitted by an institution or by an individual Principal Investigator.

However:

• A PI may submit only one proposal under each Faculty Innovation Award keyword
• Identical or duplicate proposals should not be submitted
• Multiple researchers from the same institution may submit proposals under the same keyword when each proposal has a different PI

Applicants who discover an error after submitting should use the resubmission link contained in the confirmation email rather than starting a duplicate application.

Timeline and Review

📅 Application Opens: July 15, 2026
📅 Application Deadline: September 15, 2026
⏰ Deadline Time: 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time
📅 Expected Award Notification: Around March 2027
📅 Project Period: One year, with a possible separately negotiated extension

Sony does not provide individual feedback on every submitted proposal.

Application Process

Applications must be submitted through Sony’s online proposal form.

Email submissions will not be accepted.

Applicants should be prepared to provide:

• Proposal PDF
• PI’s full name and academic title
• PI’s department and institutional information
• PI’s email address
• PI or combined PI/Co-PI CV file
• Contact information for the person submitting the application
• SAT International Code for institutions in the United States and Canada, when available

The institution’s sponsored research or research administration office may submit the proposal on behalf of the Principal Investigator.

Applicants will receive an automatic confirmation email after completing the submission process. The confirmation should be retained as proof of submission and because it contains the link needed to correct and resubmit a proposal before the deadline.

Apply / Learn More

➡️ Apply for the 2026 Sony Faculty Innovation Award

Why This Opportunity Is a Good Fit

The Sony Faculty Innovation Award may be a strong fit for:

• Faculty members conducting advanced technology research
• Universities seeking industry-sponsored research partnerships
• Nonprofit or governmental research institutes
• Researchers working in AI, machine learning, computer vision, robotics, entertainment, audio, communications, security, sports technology, or advanced device technologies
• Investigators who can clearly connect their research to potential Sony technologies, products, creator tools, or entertainment applications
• Institutions prepared to enter into a sponsored research agreement involving intellectual property and research-use provisions

Applicants should clearly explain how the proposed project advances beyond the current state of the art and identify practical use cases that demonstrate its relevance to Sony.

Corporate Grants Guide Notes

Review Type: Competitive international research award
Maximum Funding: Up to $100,000
Project Period: One year
Award Structure: Sponsored research agreement
Prior Sony Relationship Required: No
Best Suited For: Eligible university faculty and full-time researchers conducting advanced technology research
Key Consideration: Institutional approval of Sony’s sponsored research and intellectual property terms

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