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Researcher Application to AWS for Grant/Award
From time to time Amazon Web Services promotes research grants either solely by themselves or in conjunction with corporate sponsors. These grants are typically open to the public and require that the researcher complete an application process. Each specific award is unique in its requirements and criteria for the award. Some grants have residency or other special prerequisites. It is up to the researcher applying for the grant to assure that they are following any qualifying requirements.
While the grants themselves do not always require the use of an AWS Account, an account might be useful to the researcher while they are going through the application process. If desired, researchers may obtain their own, personal AWS account that includes a generous number of hours of "free tier" access. They can use this personal account to become familiar with the environment and as an aid to completing some of the specifics of the proposal that accompanies the grant application process. Creation of such a personal account is completely optional at this stage.
Once the grant application has been submitted, the overall process shifts to the AWS Amazon Research Award team for evaluation and subsequent award or denial of the grant.
Evaluation and Selection of Recipients
AWS and its associated partners are responsible for the review of all applications for specific grants and awards. Upon selection, AWS will inform the researcher that they have been selected as a recipient of the award. Research awards frequently include cash awards and/or AWS account credits. In order to accept the awards from AWS, the researcher will need to immediately determine a UTD qualifying cost center in which to receive the grant components.
At the same time the researcher is notified, the AWS Account Team for UTD is also notified. The team will work with OIT Cloud Services and the researcher to assure the proper process is followed. Since the researcher is given a limited amount of time to accept the offer, the coordination of events is critical. The following steps must be followed in preparation of accepting the award:
- Researcher will contact UTD Treasury and provide the details of the cash portion of the award along with the valid cost center. The details will be provided in the AWS award notification.
- If credits were also part of the award, the researcher must contact UTD OIT Cloud Services and complete a "Request for Cloud Hosting" Atlas ticket, providing the valid cost center information. Under no circumstances should the researcher supply their personal AWS account to AWS for the purpose of accepting the award. A new, UTD-based AWS Account must be provided for this use. Failure to obtain a UTD-based AWS Account may result in the forfeiting of the award by AWS.
- UTD Treasury will advise the researcher when the cash award has been processed.
OIT Cloud Services will create and provision the new UTD-Based AWS Account and give the Account Number to the end researcher for acceptance. Care should be taken if a personal AWS account has previously been used, as workloads from the personal account can not usually be transferred to the new UTD-based AWS account.
As a rule of thumb, the researcher should expect that these activities listed above will take about a week to complete, though, AWS Account Creation is typically done within 48 hours of a valid "Request for Cloud Hosting" Atlas form. Once UTD Treasury and OIT Cloud Services have been notified, and a valid UTD-based AWS Account has been provisioned, the researcher may proceed to the acceptance phase.
Award Acceptance and UTD Processing
Upon notification of the award, the researcher is usually given a 2-3 week acceptance period. The above-mentioned activities will need to be performed prior to the researcher sending their acceptance of the award.
The researcher will need to follow the instructions sent by AWS for acceptance of the grant. This will include the AWS Account number that was set up by OIT Cloud Services.
The AWS UTD Team representative will be available for any guidance or questions that may arise.