'Sony Research Award Program' to Start Accepting Submissions Focused on Emerging and Innovative Technological Development

Seeking diverse research proposals towards realizing the Creative Entertainment Vision

TOKYO, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Group Corporation (Sony) announced today that it will begin calling for research proposals for the Sony Research Award Program on July 15, 2025. The Sony Research Award Program is an open innovation program for universities and research institutions such as government research institutes and nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Canada, 17 European countries^*1 and India. This year, we are seeking research proposals that support "Creative Entertainment Vision," the long-term vision for where Sony wants to be in 10 years.

The Sony Research Award Program is comprised of two awards – the Faculty Innovation Award and the Focused Research Award. It provides sponsored research funding for projects on cutting-edge technologies in collaboration with Sony Group's own research groups.

• The Faculty Innovation Award grants up to $100,000 USD to principal investigators for one year^*2, for diverse research projects including AI, that may fall within three broad subject categories (Information Technology, Device Technology, and Entertainment) relevant to Sony's general research interests.
  
  
• The Focused Research Award provides support for up to $150,000 USD for one year^*2, to research themes more focused on Sony's immediate areas of interest. There will be 11 themes this year, focusing primarily on AI technologies that unleash creators' creativity and lead to the creation of new value.

Sony will continue to advance research and development and promote innovation through partnerships with universities and research institutes around the world.

For more information about the awards, as well as the submission guidelines, please visit https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/research-award-program/ .  

^*1 European countries included in the program are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom.
^*2 With the possibility of an extension.

Comment from the award recipient in 2023:
Professor Laurie Heller, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, U.S.)
"With support from Sony, my colleagues and I are investigating ways to use machine learning and large language models to generate perceptually better interpolation between environmental sounds. This has relevance for creative arts, sound designers, and the scientific study of sound categories. We have also explored vision-and-language models for sound categorization. Sony has offered their expertise and resources to support our research. With the support of Sony, we hope to advance generative sound technology that can be applied in a multitude of ways."

Comment from the award recipient in 2022 and 2023:
Professor Alan Marshall, University of Liverpool (Liverpool, U.K.)
"The past two Sony Research Award Program collaborations have proven to be transformative for my group's research. The opportunity has allowed our group to develop and investigate new approaches to multi-sensory immersion, including the olfactory sensory channel as well as more traditional haptic, aural, and visual channels. More importantly, the close relationships formed with Sony researchers have opened up new thoughts and possibilities. These collaborations have accelerated our research into how to implement and measure levels of immersion and presence in multi-sensory environments, as will be encountered in the next generation metaverse."

SOURCE Sony Group Corporation