New York University
The engineering stack and infrastructure at Meta enable us to build communities and connect billions of people around the world. In order to keep pace with innovation and advancement of AI, and to support our AI workloads at scale in a proactive way, we are adopting a different approach to the design of our AI stack and the infrastructure it runs on.
The size of the design search space may be prohibitively large for human efforts alone to tackle in a proactive way, to support the rapidly increasing scale of AI models. Our goal is to use AI itself to enable us to shrink the design and development timeframes, and efficiently navigate design search spaces toward high-potential regions, with the promise of efficient generalization and fine-tuning to constantly evolving AI workloads. We want to be proactive in making our AI stack more power- and compute-efficient, as well as enhance the reliability of our infrastructure.
We invite the academic community to partner with us and build strong collaborations focusing on making our world-class AI stack, from silicon to models’ output, even better with AI.
We are interested in using AI and ML approaches, such as reinforcement learning, Bayesian modeling, and graph representation learning to automate and improve the whole AI stack - from silicon to AI models’ output. Some specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to, chip design, ASIC development, ML-guided compiler optimization, automatic kernel generation and selection, network topology design, network engineering and optimization, data centers optimization, training clusters and system design, data center cooling, and AI for understanding AI workloads.
To foster further innovation in this area, and to deepen our collaboration with academia, Meta is pleased to invite faculty to respond to this call for research proposals pertaining to the aforementioned topics. We anticipate awarding a total of eight awards, each in the $50,000 range. Payment will be made to the proposer's host university as an unrestricted gift.
New York University
University of California, Los Angeles
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Texas at Austin
North Carolina State University
University of Melbourne
Harvard University
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Applications Are Currently CLosed
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following.
1. Chip design
2. Power estimation
3. Automatic kernel generation
4. Compiler optimization
5. Data center optimization
6. Network topology design and optimization
7. Nuclear fusion
Most of the RFP awards are an unrestricted gift. Because of its nature, salary/headcount could be included as part of the budget presented for the RFP. Since the award/gift is paid to the university, they will be able to allocate the funds to that winning project and have the freedom to use as they need. All Meta teams are different and have different expectations concerning deliverables, timing, etc. Long story short – yes, money for salary/headcount can be included. It’s up to the reviewing team to determine if the percentage spend is reasonable and how that relates to the decision if the project is a winner or not.
We are flexible, but ideally proposals submitted are single-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt font.
Research awards are given year-round and funding years/duration can vary by proposal.
Yes, award funds can be used to cover a researcher’s salary.
Budgets can vary by institution and geography, but overall research funds ideally cover the following: graduate or post-graduate students’ employment/tuition; other research costs (e.g., equipment, laptops, incidental costs); travel associated with the research (conferences, workshops, summits, etc.); overhead for research gifts is limited to 5%.
Co-PIs are welcome! One person will need to be the primary PI (i.e., the submitter that will receive all email notifications); however, you’ll be given the opportunity to list collaborators/co-PIs in the submission form. Please note in your budget breakdown how the funds should be dispersed amongst PIs.
Absolutely. We welcome submissions from collaborators/co-PIs at the same or different institutions. (See FAQ above for co-PI submission form instructions.) Please note, payment will be made to the primary PI’s host institution. It can be further disbursed by that institution.
As mentioned above, we welcome submissions from multiple co-PIs from the same or different institutions on a single proposal. All names and institutions will be named as part of the award communication on the Meta Research website; however, the full amount of the award payment will be made to the primary PI’s host institution and can be further disbursed by that institution.
Generally, RFP winners that are awarded as gifts will be provided a standard Meta-branded gift letter requiring signature from an authorized university representative in order to initiate the payment process. University representatives, administrators, or other partners with an interest in the specific terms can review below. The gift letter contains standard terms and conditions included in all Meta gift letters with academics, such as:
Meta’s decisions will be final in all matters relating to Meta RFP solicitations, including whether or not to grant an award and the interpretation of Meta RFP Terms and Conditions. By submitting a proposal, applicants affirm that they have read and agree to these Terms and Conditions.