We are thrilled to announce the launch of Yahoo's fourth annual Key Scientific Challenges Program. This is your chance to get an inside look at—and help tackle—the big challenges that Yahoo and the entire Internet industry are facing today. As part of the Key Scientific Challenges Program, you'll meet Yahoo's leading scientists, gain access to some of the richest and largest data repositories in the world, and potentially make a huge impact on the future of the Internet while driving your research forward. Challenge Areas include:

• Search Experiences
• Machine Learning
• Data Management
• Information Extraction
• Economics
• Statistics
• Multimedia
• Computational Advertising
• Social Sciences
• Green Computing
• Security
• Privacy

Key Scientific Challenges Award Recipients Receive:

• $5,000 unrestricted research seed funding which can be used for conference fees and travel, lab materials, professional society membership dues, etc.
• Access to select Yahoo datasets through Webscope™
• The unique opportunity to collaborate with our industry-leading scientists
• An invitation to this summer's exclusive Key Scientific Challenges Graduate Student Summit where you'll join the top minds in academia and industry to present your work, discuss research trends and jointly develop revolutionary approaches to fundamental problems

Criteria: To be eligible, you must be currently enrolled in a PhD program at any accredited institution. We're accepting applications from January 20th – March 9th, 2012 and winners will be announced by mid April 2012. To learn more about the program, challenge areas, past winners and how to apply, click here.