Google Research

Trust & Safety research awards

Google is committed to supporting innovative research and professors working to create positive societal impact with technology, particularly in areas relevant to Trust & Safety. In 2023, Google is looking to fund and actively collaborate with the academic research community, exploring opportunities to expand our knowledge of Trust & Safety concerns.

We’re seeking research proposals and will provide unrestricted grants to support research efforts across disciplines and areas of interest related to Trust & Safety in technology. We welcome proposals from across disciplines, including but not limited to Computer Science, Legal Studies, Public Policy, Social Sciences, Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, etc.

Program Status

Applications are now closed.

Decisions will be announced via email in October 2023.

Award information

Funds granted will be up to $100,000 USD. Funding is intended to support the advancement of the Principal Investigator’s (PI) research during the academic year in which the award is provided. Funds will be disbursed as unrestricted gifts to the university and are not intended for overhead or indirect costs.

Research areas

Trust & Safety encompasses a wide range of research directions and we welcome proposals from across any area or interest. Some of our specific interests in Trust & Safety include:

  • Child and teen safety, including self-endangering behavior
  • Content moderation
  • Fraud or financial scams
  • Generative AI safety
  • Hate speech, harassment, or cyberbullying
  • Incitement, terrorism, or violent extremism
  • Misinformation or disinformation
  • Non-consensual explicit imagery
  • Synthetic or manipulated media

For the 2023 grant, we’re extremely interested in expanding our knowledge of Trust & Safety concerns across EU member states, so priority will be given to projects that work within an EU context (e.g., mapping multilingual misinformation focused on EU languages), or have at least 1 PI based in an EU institution.

Guidance on proposals

We request submitted research proposals to use the format below, outlining the research goals, resource estimates and proposed modalities, and be no longer than three pages in length (including references).

We believe strongly in open access and in supporting projects whose output will be made available to the public and to other researchers. For this reason, we ask applicants Principal Investigators to include a brief statement about what they intend to do with the output of their work, and we strongly prefer projects that intend to publish and/or contribute to the academic community.

How to apply

Apply by completing the application by Wednesday, September 20, 2023 (11:59 pm PST).

Eligibility criteria:

  • This application is open to professors (assistant, associate, etc.) at degree-granting universities and academic research institutions who are advising students and conducting research.

  • Applicants may serve as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on up to 2 proposals per round.

  • There can be a maximum of 2 PIs per proposal.

Proposal, in PDF format, must include these items and be no longer than 3 pages (including references):

  • Proposal Title
  • Principal Investigator (PI) full name, contact information
  • Co-PI’s full names, contact information
  • Affiliation (university, school, college and/or department)
  • Research objectives/goals/hypothesis
  • Proposed approach
  • Expected impact/benefit to the research community
  • Budget: Amount requested, inclusive of all fees

  • Disclosure Policy: A short description of what you intend to do with the output of your project (e.g., publications, open sourcing code, making data sets public, etc.)

  • Expected results/publication with timeline (i.e., 6 months, 12 months...)

  • Statement of prior work, including a list of relevant publications (2 pages max addendum to proposal - total package including relevant publications and statement of prior work should be 5 pages or fewer)

We request all applications to be submitted in English. We expect to send out decision notifications in October 2023. Do not submit any confidential or proprietary information through this application as the details of your project proposal will be shared with internal and external experts for evaluation.

We look forward to receiving your proposal and collaborating with you.

Frequently asked questions

Learn more about our programs and outreach efforts on our FAQ page.

See FAQs