academic research tools

We advance science and technology to benefit humanity

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Our Research Lens

We consider research directions through the lens of the positive impact we aspire to create with and for customers, communities, and all of society.

Foundations

Advancing human knowledge and foundational technologies.

Science and technology have never been more deeply interconnected. We aim to accelerate and democratize scientific discovery by empowering the global research community with leading-edge tools enabled by artificial intelligence, hyperscale computing and other advances in computing technology. In turn, we aim to draw upon new fundamental insights to inform and inspire new breakthroughs and computing paradigms.

AI and Microsoft Research

Cloud systems futures.

Three researchers collaborating in an office

Ensuring that technology is trustworthy and beneficial to everyone

Advances in technology can present tremendous opportunities along with equally significant risks. We aim to enable individuals and organizations to understand and govern their data and technology in alignment with human intent and in adherence with applicable regulations.

We create leading-edge tools for realizing technology ethics from principle to practice, engage at the intersection of technology and policy, and ultimately aim to ensure that the continued advancement of technology is safe, secure, and beneficial to society.

Privacy Preserving Machine Learning Innovation

Fate: fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in ai.

Two young people with low vision use the Project Torino physical programming learning set.

Empowerment

Amplifying human creativity and achievement.

We believe that technology exists to amplify human potential and creativity across the breadth of our abilities and circumstances. 

We are focused on empowering people to pursue their goals, to discover meaning in their work and play, and to stay connected to what’s important to them. We aim to create technologies that can understand our intent and context and smoothly adapt, thereby transforming the way individuals engage with machines, data, and each other.

Collaborative Intelligence

Center for societal impact through cloud and ai (scai), the new future of work.

Two researchers collaborate at a whiteboard

Empowering scientists and accelerating the discovery of new knowledge

We aim to accelerate and democratize scientific discovery by empowering the global research community with leading edge tools enabled by advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and hyperscale computing. In turn, we aim to draw upon new fundamental insights to inform and inspire new breakthroughs in computing technology.

If we can unlock and accelerate more scientific exploration and experimentation through advances in computing, we can help achieve breakthroughs across the sciences that will positively impact our world.

AI for Science

Dr. Raj Jena, Oncologist, is sat in a hospital room testing the InnerEye platform

Supporting a healthy global society

We have witnessed incredible progress in advancing science and technology for improving human health, but the benefits of these advancements are unevenly distributed throughout society.

We aim to help ensure that every person on the planet can live to their physical and mental potential by advancing inclusive and equitable technologies supporting the health of individuals and populations. In pursuit of this aim, we collaborate across disciplines and institutions at the intersection of computing technology, health, and life sciences.

Microsoft Health Futures

Biomedical imaging, microsoft immunomics, biomedical nlp, microsoft genomics.

Fostering a resilient and sustainable society

The need to address global challenges such as sustainability and pandemic response has never been more pressing.

We aim to create more robust interconnected systems of people and technology capable of identifying societal and ecological patterns and enabling coordinated action. Effective new approaches in these areas will not only help us respond to and recover from systemic disruptions but could ultimately help us anticipate and prevent them.

Societal Resilience

Environmental sustainability.

“Microsoft Research is powered by brilliant, endlessly inquisitive individuals.” —Peter Lee, CVP, Microsoft Research & Incubations

Researcher working with quantum computer.

Research culture

We are rigorous and objective: since its founding in 1991, Microsoft Research has been committed to an academic research approach that advances our understanding of the world and how we use technology to interact with it, and with each other.

We take calculated risks: as an industrial research lab, we contribute ideas that help improve Microsoft’s existing products and services and clear paths to new businesses – but we start from a place of curiosity and exploration. This leads us to take on challenges with an eye toward the longer-term benefit and a willingness to learn from failure as we explore new frontiers.

Ethan Jackson standing in the Microsoft Premonition display

We show and share our work: over the past thirty years, our research community and collaborators have published tens of thousands of papers and released hundreds of open-source projects and datasets. Nearly all of the research we produce is shared with the research community.

We move the conversation forward: Alongside new papers and new inventions, conversations and constructive debate are key to advancing the state of the art across all the sciences and to aligning the research community with the people its research aims to serve. That’s why we share much of our research through conferences, events, and other forums where these important dialogues take place.

We engage with the entire research ecosystem: we work across disciplines – from social sciences to economics, to mathematics and physics and collaborate across the boundaries between research and engineering and with our peers in academia, industry, and government. We learn, build, and amplify research as we convene within the research ecosystem and co-create research that impacts society and the world.

Meet the people who make it possible

We work collectively to make Microsoft Research a welcoming and productive space for all researchers. Our researchers have the opportunity to create and pursue a research agenda with our group’s diverse array of researchers and practitioners, as well as contribute to ongoing research projects.

Engage with us

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Academic conferences

Events provide opportunities to meet our community of researchers, learn about exciting research topics, and grow your network.

Microsoft Research Forum

Join us for a continuous exchange of ideas about science and technology research in the era of general AI. This series explores recent research advances, bold new ideas, and important discussions with the global research community.

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Academic programs

Microsoft recognizes the value of diversity in computing and aims to increase the pipeline of talent receiving advanced degrees in computing-related fields.

Research tools

We maintain an index of datasets, models, SDKs, APIs, and other open-source code created by Microsoft researchers and shared with the broader academic community.

Labs & locations

Microsoft Research is a research community that works across a network of regional labs and mission-oriented organizations. Learn more about our labs and missions.

Careers in research

Join a brilliant team of researchers working to solve technology’s most exciting challenges. Come as you are. Do what you love.

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Research your paper easily within Word

Important: Researcher will be retired starting on January 1, 2025.

Researcher helps you find and cite reliable sources for your research paper in just a few steps.

Your browser does not support video. Install Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, or Internet Explorer 9.

This feature is available only to for Windows desktop clients.

Note: Researcher is available only in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

Research and add content with citations to your document

Note: Researcher uses Bing to pull in the appropriate content from the web and provide structured, safe and credible information.

On the Reference tab, in the Reference group , choose Researcher .

In the search box, type a keyword for the topic you are researching and press Enter.

The Results pane shows a list of sources you can use in your document.

Choose a topic in the Results pane to explore in detail.

Tap the plus sign on the upper right hand corner of on any result to begin an outline for your research topic. This adds the result as a topic heading in your document and saves a link to the result in a comment.

When you are exploring the text in the Results pane and do one of the following:

Choose Add to add only text to your document.

Choose Add and Cite to add text and also include citation for your source.

Tap See all images to open the image gallery. Choose the plus sign to add the image to your document

Reseracher See all images, add text or add and cite text

After you add text or image, you are prompted to update your bibliography.

Choose Update to automatically create or update your existing bibliography.

Editing Citations

To edit, choose the citation and select the drop-down.

Select Edit Citation .

See Add or change sources, citations, and bibliographies for more information.

Note: This feature is only available if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription . If you are a Microsoft 365 subscriber, make sure you have the latest version of Office .

On the Reference tab, choose Researcher .