AWS in Education FAQs

Q: What is the AWS in Education program?

AWS in Education provides a set of programs that enable the academic community to easily leverage the benefits of Amazon Web Services for teaching and research. With AWS in Education, educators, academic researchers, and students worldwide can apply to obtain free usage credits to tap into the on-demand infrastructure of Amazon Web Services to teach advanced courses, tackle research endeavors and explore new projects – tasks that previously would have required expensive up-front and ongoing investments in infrastructure.

Q: Why is AWS offering this program?

Many in the academic community are already using AWS for teaching, academic research, coursework, and individual student projects. By offering grants for AWS service credits, we hope to enable even more members of the academic community to tap into the on-demand infrastructure of Amazon Web Services to teach advanced courses, tackle academic research endeavors, and explore new projects.

Q: Is this a global program?

Yes. AWS in Education will accept applications from around the world for teaching, research, and student grants.

Q: Is the AWS in Education program an education pricing discount on AWS service costs?

No. The AWS in Education program is a grants program enabling teaching, academic research, and student projects on AWS services. AWS does not offer education pricing discounts.

Q: What types of grants are available?

AWS is offering grants to educators, academic researchers, and students.

Q: Who can apply for these grants?

Educators, academic researchers, and students at accredited universities can apply for AWS service credits by visiting http://aws.amazon.com/education

Q: How does an educator apply for a teaching grant?

Educators apply via a simple online form on http://aws.amazon.com/education requesting information including contact email, AWS account ID, the web site for the course seeking grant support, and the number of students enrolled.

Q: How will the teaching grant process work?

After reviewing the application, if the grant is accepted, the educator will be notified in email with a code and a link to an AWS credits redemption web site where the credits will be applied to the educator’s AWS account.

Q: How does an academic researcher apply for an academic research grant?

Academic researchers may apply via a simple online form on http://aws.amazon.com/education requesting information including contact email, the web site detailing the academic research project seeking grant support, and details on how AWS services will be used to support the research. AWS will evaluate academic research grant proposals on a quarterly basis. The submission deadline and grant award calendar can be found at http://aws.amazon.com/education

Q: How will the academic research grant process work?

After reviewing the application, if the grant is accepted, the academic researcher will be notified in email with a code and a link to the AWS credits redemption web site where the credits will be applied to the researcher’s AWS account.

Q: What factors will AWS consider in determining who will receive academic research grants?

AWS will award research grants based on factors such as the uniqueness and usefulness of the project, use of AWS within the project, and potential to attain matching funds from other organizations interested in the project.

Q: Can students qualify for grants?

AWS in Education will accept project grant proposals from students doing course projects related to AWS or cloud concepts in addition to entrepreneurship projects. If the student is awarded a project grant, the student will be notified in email with a code and a link to the AWS credits redemption web site where the credits will be applied to the student’s AWS account.

Q: Do the grant credits expire?

Yes. Grants provide AWS services credits for 1 year for teaching and student project grants and 2 years for research grants from the time the code is sent to the recipient via email.

Q: What happens to my application when my grant expires?

Any subsequent AWS services usage on the account after grant credits expire or are fully utilized would be charged to the credit card on the AWS account.

Q: Do grant recipients have to use an AWS account and credit card?

Yes. Grants are provided in the form of usage credits to an active AWS account. Any subsequent AWS services usage on the account after grant credits expire or are fully utilized would be charged to the credit card per applicable AWS billing rates.