Today, Google announced (at http://is.gd/7yd3Y) the first-ever round of Google Focused Research Awards — funding research in areas of study that are of key interest to Google as well as the research community. These awards, totaling $5.7 million, cover four areas: machine learning, the use of mobile phones as data collection devices for public health and environment monitoring, energy efficiency in computing, and privacy. These unrestricted grants are for two to three years, and the recipients will have the advantage of access to Google tools, technologies and expertise. They've given awards to 12 projects led by 31 professors at 10 universities. Open Data Kit (at http://is.gd/7ydu7) is one of two in the mobile data collection category and we are very excited about what this funding will enable over the next few years. We can't do this work without the support of the folks at UW and in Change, so thanks for making ODK a better project. Yaw