Amazon Research Awards (ARA) - Sustainability

Amazon's Sustainability Research Awards program invites proposals for innovative projects that merge machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques with life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies to support carbon abatement strategies. This call seeks to fund projects that address the challenges associated with generating consistent, transparent, and accurate carbon measurements.

The aim of this initiative is to significantly advance the comparability of LCAs within the manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture sectors. Central to this effort is the provision of datasets, methodologies, and tools that can effectively validate that assumptions, process flows, and emission factors are uniformly applied across assessments. This focus acknowledges the critical need for verifiable data and assumptions that underpin sustainable decision-making processes. Proposals should address challenges in creating accessible solutions that ensure LCA data can be easily scrutinized and validated by stakeholders, reinforcing trust in sustainability metrics and facilitating more informed decisions. Proposals should clearly articulate how they will deliver tangible, practical outputs such as code and data, emphasizing mechanisms for ensuring data integrity and consistency in LCA practices.

Proposals must focus on the application of ML/AI to enhance LCA methodologies or datasets, with an emphasis on scalability, generalizability, and open-source distribution.

Duration:      1 year

Funding:

• Unrestricted funds, from $50,000 to $100,000
• AWS credits: up to $40,000
• Training resources, including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineer

• More information about the program is available here and full ARA program rules available here.
• The application portal can be found here.
• For any other questions, please contact the Research Office.