Six Carnegie Mellon University faculty members, including five affiliated with the School of Computer Science, received grants through Google's inaugural Research Scholar Program. The program provides up to $60,000 to support the research efforts of early career professors.

SCS-affiliated faculty who received grants include Pravesh Kothari, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department; Nihar Shah, an assistant professor in the Machine Learning and Computer Science departments and in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department; Virginia Smith, an assistant professor in the Machine Learning Department and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department; Nathan Beckmann, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department; and Sivaraman Balakrishnan, an assistant professor of statistics in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and an affiliated faculty member in the Machine Learning Department. Balakrishnan received a grant jointly with Aravindan Vijayaraghavan, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Northwestern University.

Dina El Zanfaly, an assistant professor in CMU's School of Design, also earned a grant.

In 2020, Google announced the creation of the Research Scholar Program and the Award for Inclusion Research Program to bolster its support for the research community. This year, the company awarded 77 grants to 86 professors from 50 universities in more than 15 countries. Nearly half of the grants went to professors identifying as a historically marginalized group within technology.