This RFP has been awarded. To view the award recipients, see Microsoft Live Labs: Accelerating Search in Academic Research 2006 RFP Awards.

Background
Live Labs is a partnership between MSN and Microsoft Research focused on applied research for Internet-enabled products and services at Microsoft. Live Labs includes people with many different skills and perspectives on internet technologies — researchers, engineers, developers and designers. Together, they foster Internet-centric research programs, rapidly prototype and launch emerging technologies, incubate entirely new inventions, and improve and accelerate Live product offerings. The Live Labs team will collaborate closely with the academic research communities through research grants, fellowships, workshops, conference sponsorships, sabbaticals, internships, and more. More information on Live Labs is available at http://labs.live.com.

This Request for Proposals is in support of Live Labs’ collaboration with the academic research community and is focused on the Internet Search research area.

Advances in Internet Search technology continue to reach new heights. However, recently published papers in this area still typically rely on data resources that are old or limited in size. For example, a 1999 1.7 million-query log excerpt from Excite is still frequently cited.

This RFP directly addresses the need for more large-scale data. By making additional real world search data available to academia, Microsoft seeks to further encourage academic research and innovation in search. Microsoft believes that by increasing the availability of relevant, large, and current data sets from MSN Search, new data analysis and algorithm development in Internet Search will be supported.

Goals & Objectives
To advance academic research and publication in the area of Internet Search and, more generally, in data mining, discovery and analysis, Microsoft intends to make available to RFP awardees an MSN Search query log excerpt, further described in the Asset description section, with 15 million queries sampled over several weeks and including:

• Session ID
• Time-stamp
• Query string
• Per-query search result click-through

In addition, Microsoft has already made available an MSN Search Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables programmatic access to MSN Search results for up to 10,000 queries per day with 50 search results per query. The SDK is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn/msnsearch.

RFP awardees will be allowed up to 100,000 queries per day.

Microsoft encourages proposals which describe innovative research using the query/click log and SDK assets above in bold, novel, and unconventional approaches to explore Internet Search and related technologies, including interdisciplinary research. However, researchers are not required to make use of the assets described above and are encouraged to “think outside the box” in their proposal.

Awards
The total amount available under this request for proposals (RFP) is US $500,000. Microsoft anticipates making approximately 10-14 awards averaging $35,000, with a maximum of $50,000 for any single award. All awards will be made in $US as unrestricted gifts to the institution. Awards under this program are for one year only, but may be renewable at the sole discretion of Microsoft.

Eligibility
Conditions of eligibility listed below will be strictly adhered to, so please read them carefully. Proposals not meeting all these criteria will not be considered.

1. The proposing institution must be an accredited baccalaureate-granting college or university (or international equivalent) with non-profit status. All qualifying institutions are eligible without regard for geographic location.
2. Proposals that are incomplete, inaccurate, request funds in excess of the maximum award available, or are otherwise not responsive to the terms and conditions of this RFP will, at the sole discretion of Microsoft, be excluded from consideration.
3. Proposals should evidence a commitment to make all results arising from a funded project (including all intellectual property in those results) broadly available by either: (i) making the results available in peer-reviewed publications or other exchange of results with the research community; or (ii) making results available under a BSD-style license.
4. Principal Investigators interested in accessing the query log excerpt will need to sign a Licensing Agreement. Terms of the license will allow for publication of results but may restrict publication of detailed excerpts of the data.

Submission Process
Proposals will be accepted in electronic form only at http://microsoft.redwhale.com. Proposals submitted to Microsoft will not be returned. Microsoft cannot assume responsibility for the confidentiality of information in submitted proposals. Therefore, proposals should not contain information that is confidential, restricted or sensitive. Microsoft reserves the right to make public proposals that receive awards, except those portions containing budgetary information.

The submission process includes two parts.

1. Brief summary and contact information. Applicants must provide full contact information for principal investigators, amount requested and a brief abstract. This information will be submitted through a web form as part of the submission process.
2. Complete proposal containing full detail on the proposed project. 2 pages maximum, 10pt. font or larger, single-spaced, in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Proposals should address the items listed below under separate numbered headings, as appropriate.

1. Problem Statement: What is the problem addressed by the proposal and why is it important? What is the potential contribution to the field of the project if successful? Cite relevant work in the field as appropriate.
2. Outcomes and Dissemination: What tangible assets, if any, will be created or produced as a result of the proposed project? How will the results of this project be evaluated (if appropriate) and how will they be disseminated to others?
3. Schedule: When is the project to be completed? What milestones will be used to measure progress of the project and when will they be completed? (If the project described is part of a larger ongoing research program, estimate the time for completion of this project only).
4. Use of Funds and Other Support: Provide a high-level budget ($US) describing how the award will be used, including purchases of hardware or software, salaries, and other costs. Include other contributions to this project (cash, goods or services), if any, but do not include such things as use of university facilities otherwise provided on an ongoing basis. Please note: authors of winning proposals will be required to submit an original letter on department letterhead certifying the commitment of any additional or matching support described in the proposal.
5. Qualifications of Principal Investigator: Include a brief description of any relevant prior research, teaching, publication or other professional experience. A detailed vita or list of publications is not required.

Selection Process and Criteria
All eligible proposals will be reviewed by a Microsoft panel of subject-matter experts chosen by the Microsoft Live Labs. Microsoft reserves the right to fund winning proposals at an amount greater or less than the amount requested, up to the stated maximum amount for individual awards. Due to the volume of submissions, Microsoft cannot provide individual feedback on proposals that are not funded.

All proposals will be evaluated based upon the following criteria:

1. Novelty and ambition with well-defined research goals and objectives that, if achieved, have the potential to have a significant impact on Internet Search and related technologies and society.
2. Potential for wide dissemination and use of intellectual property created, including specific plans for publications, conference presentations, or other exchange of results with the research community.
3. Ability to complete the project, including the adequacy of resources available, reasonableness of timelines, and number and qualifications of identified contributors.
4. Qualifications of principal investigator, including previous history of work in relevant areas, successful completion of previous funded projects, teaching awards, and books published, etc.
5. Proposed use of the resources made available (query/click log, MSN SDKs) in this proposal and Microsoft technologies to the extent applicable.

Schedule and Deadlines

Additional Information
Please address any questions to srchinq@microsoft.com.

Asset Description

MSN Search query Log excerpt

• 15 million queries
• Sampled over one month
• Queries from the US site (mostly English)

Per query attributes included:

1. Session ID
2. Time-stamp
3. Query string
4. Number of results on results page
5. Results page number

Data per query for each result clicked:

1. URL
2. Associated query
3. Position on results page
4. Time-stamp

MSN Search SDK

• 100,000 queries per day
• Rate: 1 query per second
• 50 results per query

Additional Resources
The MSN Developer Center (http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn/) features tools and interfaces to enable developers to plug into MSN’s Internet services and applications. In addition to the MSN Search SDK (as described above), the Developer Center offers other SDKs and APIs such as the Windows Desktop Search SDK and the Virtual Earth Software Development Kit.

Microsoft Word version of this document