Microsoft AI for Good Lab

Offers AI research collaboration and cloud compute support to selected public-interest initiatives through the Microsoft ecosystem.

The Microsoft AI for Good Lab is a research unit inside Microsoft Research that applies machine learning to health, sustainability, humanitarian action, and human rights. Its funding role is narrower than Microsoft's parent corporation: the lab mainly offers Azure compute credits and scientific collaboration, with cash appearing only in selected co-funded calls. The lab sits under Microsoft rather than operating as a separate legal grantmaker.

Its named routes include AI for Health, which has run as a rolling Azure-credit award since 2020 and supported more than 200 grantees, LINGUA Africa, which can reach $250,000, the Washington State open call, and Expand Opportunity. The lab works with universities, nonprofits, and researchers worldwide, especially where compute access matters as much as money.

The strongest fit is a project that needs AI infrastructure and applied research support, not a conventional unrestricted grant. Applicants do best when the problem is tightly framed, the public-interest use case is clear, and the team can use cloud resources to produce research or deployment results quickly.