Google is excited to launch the second call for applications to join a collaborative NGO + academic AI for Social Good workshop. The goal is to bring together NGOs working on tough problems in their communities with academic experts and Google researchers in order to encourage new collaborative solutions.

Google believes that AI can provide new ways of approaching problems and meaningfully improving people’s lives: it gives us another tool to explore and address hard, unanswered questions. And while AI can help, it’s not a silver bullet: progress requires collaboration across all sectors of society.

Workshop Themes

• Agriculture
• Conservation
• Public Health

Support from Google

• Google will help match relevant problems from NGOs with Academics. However, if applicants already have an ongoing collaboration (NGO + Academic), they can submit a proposal on behalf of the collaboration as well. At this stage, the workshop does not expect to receive jointly developed NGO + Academic proposals.
• Each proposal will be reviewed carefully by a team of experts at Google. Selected organisations and academic partners will be invited to a virtual workshop to jointly explore the development of AI for Social Good proposals.
• Following the workshop, there may be an additional opportunity to submit joint academic-NGO proposals. Selected collaborations may be eligible for additional support from Google to help bring their ideas to life, which may include:
  • the opportunity to consult and collaborate with Google researchers, engineers, program and product managers, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers, and more
  • Access to Google Cloud credits to support computing needs
  • NGOs: some NGOs may be considered to receive up to USD $20,000 in grant funding from Google.org to advance deployment and evaluation of AI technologies
  • Academics: some academics may be honoured with an award as “Impact Scholars”, recognized for their efforts in leading AI projects that have real-world impact. Impact Scholars will receive an unrestricted award of USD $10,000
  • Collaborative projects that move from successful pilot projects to broader implementation may be considered for additional support

Eligibility Criteria

• NGOs: The workshop is requesting NGO applications that highlight the problems they are facing and if AI might help further a solution to scale their impact.
  • The workshop invites applications from NGOs working in India and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific.
• Academics: The workshop is requesting applications from Academics that highlight their interests and experiences in deploying novel AI technologies for social good.
  • The workshop will prioritize academics with AI expertise in areas relevant to the NGOs’ application areas and/or experience in projects in "AI for Social Good" in the application areas of public health, conservation and agriculture.
  • Interested academic partners may indicate in their application how their expertise in areas such as multiagent systems, reasoning under uncertainty, reinforcement learning, computer vision may apply to the proposed application areas.
  • The workshop invites applications from Academics working in AI and related fields from universities around the world.

For more information, visit Social Good Workshop.