{"id":1095882,"date":"2024-10-24T07:32:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T14:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-academic-program&#038;p=1095882"},"modified":"2025-10-30T10:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:24:56","slug":"microsoft-productivity-scholars","status":"publish","type":"msr-academic-program","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/microsoft-productivity-scholars\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Productivity Scholars Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<p>This program offers potential post-docs and visiting scholars the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with product teams around Microsoft on some of the most important AI opportunities and challenges in the world today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"about-the-program\">About the program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Microsoft Productivity Scholars program offers potential post-docs and visiting scholars the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with product teams around Microsoft on some of the most important AI opportunities and challenges in the world today. The mission is simple: To use research to ensure AI makes work better than it was before, and for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a member of the program, a Productivity Scholar will embed with a product team to work on a product\u2019s goal that can be advanced by the post-doc\u2019s or scholar\u2019s AI research expertise. Scholars will also be mentored and supported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/group\/office-of-applied-research\/people\/\">Office of Applied Research<\/a>, led by Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan. Product teams participating in the program are those that are associated with Microsoft\u2019s productivity mission, e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, Copilot for Work, and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Productivity Scholars program is a new offering with most expected start dates in the second half of 2025\/first half of 2026.\u00a0 Productivity Scholars will be either post-docs or visiting scholars:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Post-doctoral scholars: <\/strong>The ideal candidates will be those who have already obtained faculty positions but are interested in deferring their start date by 1-1.5 years to work with product teams at Microsoft.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Visiting scholars: <\/strong>The ideal candidates are professors who are hoping to take a sabbatical for one year working with product teams at Microsoft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Our hope is that Productivity Scholars will emerge from the program with unique experience working to ship AI products that advance the state-of-the-art to up to hundreds of millions of people. If we are successful, this experience should help Productivity Scholars develop research agenda they feel are more impactful and advance their pedagogical and training missions for the AI era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center is-style-m has-light-blue-background-color has-background\" id=\"apply-here\"><strong>APPLY <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/forms.office.com\/r\/5VwsbQprT3\">HERE<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>NOTE: Due to the number of applications submitted, we are not able to contact everyone who applies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-default\" id=\"have-questions\">Have questions?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Please see our FAQ for answers to common questions. If you still need help, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:askmsar@microsoft.com\">askmsar@microsoft.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"frequently-asked-questions\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Will I publish papers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Microsoft product teams publish extensively, and many Productivity Scholars will publish with those teams. However, the goal in applied research is to jointly advance product goals and the state-of-the-art at the same time. Our hope is that the program provides you with experience that is difficult to get in the academic world: shipping innovation to hundreds of millions of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Can I apply if I am not a good fit for the candidates described above?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone should feel welcome to apply and we will consider applications on a case-by-base basis. Our candidate profiles described above are based on successful experiences in the past. We will not consider anyone for a post-doc who is not expecting to have a Ph.D. by the start date and will not consider anyone for a visiting scholar position who is not currently a professor.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr_hide_image_in_river":null,"footnotes":""},"msr-opportunity-type":[],"msr-region":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-program-audience":[],"msr-post-option":[269148,269142],"msr-impact-theme":[],"class_list":["post-1095882","msr-academic-program","type-msr-academic-program","status-publish","hentry","msr-locale-en_us","msr-post-option-approved-for-river","msr-post-option-include-in-river"],"msr_description":"","msr_social_media":[],"related-researchers":[],"tab-content":[],"msr_impact_theme":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-academic-program\/1095882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-academic-program"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-academic-program"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-academic-program\/1095882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154209,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-academic-program\/1095882\/revisions\/1154209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-opportunity-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-opportunity-type?post=1095882"},{"taxonomy":"msr-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-region?post=1095882"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1095882"},{"taxonomy":"msr-program-audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-program-audience?post=1095882"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=1095882"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1095882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}