Amazon, the online technology and retail giant, plans to give money to University of Washington faculty members, students, or anybody on a campus who has a “bold, risky” idea for making the world a better place.
A new grant program, announced on Thursday, takes aim at ugly-duckling research projects that have a big upside but are too nascent or implausible to win the attentions of federal grantmakers or venture capitalists.
Amazon will provide $2 million initially for the grants, and the director of the program will be an Amazon employee, according to a legal agreement signed last spring. Individual grants will be worth anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000, said Vikram Jandhyala, the university’s vice provost for innovation.
The barriers for entry are purposefully low. There is no fixed application window. Anybody who works for the university, attends courses there, or is otherwise affiliated with the University of Washington is eligible to apply.
The online application form asks for basic information and then a series of questions, beginning with: What’s the problem, what’s the solution, who will benefit, and why is now the right time to do it? The company is encouraging students and scholars of all stripes to apply, not just techies.
Mr. Jandhyala knows this open-ended approach might be courting crazy, but he said that’s kind of the idea. “We feel the next innovations are going to come from places we don’t anticipate,” he said.
Unusual Approach
Corporations have long sponsored the work of university researchers. Often such grants are designed to spur industry-specific insights that will give companies ideas for new or improved products and services, said Markus Perkmann, an associate professor of technology and innovation management at the business school of Imperial College London. IBM, for example, gives out yearly “faculty awards,” worth up to $40,000 each, to explore curriculum innovations that are “strategic to IBM.” Meanwhile, Bayer, the pharmaceutical company, pays for university scientists to study “druggable” enzymes.
Amazon’s new program is unusual in that it is not explicitly connected to the company’s businesses, said Mr. Perkmann.
That does not mean Amazon does not stand to benefit strategically. While all copyrights and patents that grow out of the research will be owned by the university, Amazon will have permission to reproduce, modify, and sell any of the work relating to a grant — including any “pre-existing work” that a grantee incorporates into a project.
People who would rather not sign away those permissions to Amazon might want to apply elsewhere for funding, said Mr. Jandhyala, but the goal is to attract ideas that otherwise would have slipped through the cracks.
“It’s for people who say, I think this is a crazy idea,” said the vice provost, “and I think it has legs.”
Steve Kolowich writes about how colleges are changing, and staying the same, in the digital age. Follow him on Twitter @stevekolowich, or write to him at steve.kolowich@chronicle.com.
