- Microsoft Research Asia invites young faculty worldwide for a three-month full-time research residency across its regional labs in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, and Vancouver.
- The 2026 program spotlights AI-transformed medical research, agentic AI, brain-AI integration, AI-era systems, societal AI, and spatial intelligence.
- Eligible PhD faculty (within 7 years of award) can apply by November 30, with final submissions due December 15 and results to be announced in March 2026.
Microsoft Research Asia officially opened the call for its 2026 StarTrack Scholars Program, inviting young faculty members from universities across the world to join the three-month full-time research residency in one of the MSRA regional labs. It is aimed at deepening the connection between MSRA and top universities across the world to collaborate on artificial intelligence, computing infrastructure, and other interdisciplinary sciences.
MSRA operates research hubs in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, and Vancouver, and its teams address applied AI, machine learning, cloud systems, and computing research that cuts across the boundary between academic inquiry and real-world implementation.
Under the StarTrack Scholars Program, participants will work on site with MSRA researchers, utilize the group's computing resources, datasets, and international research network, and start a new research project as part of their residency, rather than bringing an existing one.
For 2026, MSRA has named six priority research themes: AI-transformed medical research-one that covers the fields of multimodal foundation models for diagnosis, data synthesis, and clinical deployment; agentic AI, or intelligent systems enabling sustained human-agent communication and reasoning; brain and artificial intelligence, a domain integrating neuroscience insights to construct more efficient and interpretable AI models; AI-era systems and networking, where AI transforms computing architecture, infrastructure, and security; societal AI, which bridges the technical with social science to better understand how large-scale models of AI will shape the future for people and policy and spatial intelligence-developing Embodied and 3D Vision models with applications to Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
General areas within which applicants can also propose work include Natural Language Computing, Trustworthy Systems, Machine Learning, and Multimodal Computing. According to MSRA, 'the six research fields mentioned above are the primary focus for collaboration in the Microsoft Research Asia StarTrack Scholars 2026'.
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The application timeline has been set, with registration open now, and key deadlines include an application closure of 30 November and final submission due 15 December. Results are to be announced in March 2026, with the visit period running through January 2027.
Applicants must hold a PhD awarded within the past seven years, be current university or institutional faculty members, and be available for a full-time, three-month on-site visit, though in exceptional cases a limited remote component may be approved. Scholars are required to deliver a presentation and a written report at the end of their visit and will join the StarTrack Scholars Alumni Association on completion.
In line with MSRA policy, all intellectual property developed during the program is owned by Microsoft, and scholars must initiate genuinely new research during their visit, not carry over existing projects.
This program reflects the strategic objective of MSRA to 'foster close academic exchange and collaboration between Microsoft Research Asia and young scholars from esteemed international universities and academic research institutions'. By coming together in a focused residency format, the program aims at catalyzing high-impact research that bridges theory with practice while building long-term scholarly networks across the region and globally.
