This award provides for the establishment of a new University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) to be hosted at Duke University. The heart of the Foundation’s longstanding Minority PhD program, UCEMs are campus-based initiatives that provide scholarships, faculty and peer mentoring, professional development activities, and seminars and other resources aimed at promoting underrepresented minority students’ (URMs’) successful completion of graduate study. The Duke University UCEM will encompass nine science and engineering departments: chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics, statistical science, biomedical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering and materials science. Over the three-year grant period, 30 minority graduate students will be supported with $40,000 awards over and above their standard graduate student support packages, half from Sloan grant funds and half from Duke matching funds. In addition, UCEM faculty and administrators will enhance and expand their minority outreach, aiming for a 20% increase in URM applications and at least a 10% increase in URM matriculants to the UCEM-participating programs over the life of the grant. Other funded activities include a coordinated set of professional development and support activities for supported students, including mentorship, seminars, and networking opportunities.

This grant funds a pilot project at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) that will leverage the insights and infrastructure of the university’s successful Meyerhoff Scholars program to identify talented minority undergraduates with an interest in pursuing advanced degrees in economics and provide them with high quality mentoring and training that will help prepare them for success in top flight graduate programs. Funded activities include: Hosting of several workshops per year to inform students early in their college years about career opportunities available to economics PhDs; Creation of faculty working groups in economics, math, and other STEM fields to examine how undergraduate course pathways influence the potential for doctoral work in economics; Provision of advising, mentoring, group support, and financial support for interested students; Offering of summer research experiences to 15 undergraduates over five years at either UMBC or at one of several other approved research universities or institutes; and The award of five stipends to UMBC graduates for two-year research assistantships in Sloan-approved economics-focused post-baccalaureate programs.

This grant provides partial support for a two-year initiative by the National Academies’ Board on Higher Education and Workforce to produce a thoroughly-researched consensus study on effective mentoring practices and the role these practices play in improving student persistence and expanding diversity and inclusion. Examining both undergraduate and graduate mentoring programs, the study aims to identify areas for future empirical research and to evaluate the impact of varied mentoring programs in STEMM (STEM+Medicine). A parallel effort will develop an online, interactive resource guide so that institutions, departments, individual faculty, and student development professionals will be able to access fully-vetted materials and resources on mentoring and customize them for their own use. Plans are to convene a study committee of 8-12 members; hold two-to-four in-person committee meetings and four-to-five virtual committee meetings; complete a critical review of the literature; organize workshops and stakeholder engagement activities; publish the committee report; develop, test, and launch the interactive online resource; and assess the project’s uptake and impact.

This grant provides 40 months of continued funding for the MSRI Undergraduate Program (MSRI-UP) at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. The MSRI-UP program includes (1) an annual six-week summer research experience for 18 undergraduate mathematics students from underrepresented groups working in research teams of three, (2) colloquia and professional development workshops, (3) presentations at national math conferences following the summer program, (4) an introduction to a wide community of peers and mentors, and (5) long-term follow-up and mentorship. The research efforts of participants will result in technical reports posted on MSRI’s website, oral presentations at a culminating symposium, and presentations at various national conferences. Of former MSRI-UP participants with bachelor’s degrees, 82% have continued into graduate programs, including 70% in doctoral programs. Though the program was only started in 2007, 45 alumni have gone on to earn MS degrees and 20 have completed PhDs. These achievements are especially noteworthy given the program’s focus on recruiting underserved students who are not clearly headed for a graduate program in mathematics and who are not high GPA students from elite high schools.

Founded by civic technologist Noel Hidalgo, BetaNYC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping key New York City constituencies take advantage of already-accessible open civic data. Hidalgo has identified New York’s borough president offices and community boards as particularly promising sites of leverage where better access to civic data could be of direct and immediate value to local governance, and where better technical literacy and capacity could tangibly improve New Yorkers’ experience of government. Among its programs, BetaNYC runs a Community Information Fellowship that places CUNY undergraduates in the Manhattan Borough President’s office, where they identify and work to fill gaps in technical expertise at the community board. This grant would build on that program to pilot a “Civic Innovation Lab” in the Borough President’s office that will build prototype solutions to data problems identified by these fellows. The grant is being made to the Fund for the City of New York, a not-for-profit that provides fiscal sponsorship and administrative support to charitable efforts aimed at benefiting the City and its residents.

The $500,000 grant to MIT will establish the Paul L. Joskow Fellowship Fund (the “Fund”) in honor of Paul L. Joskow, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 2008 through 2017. MIT will hold the grant as an endowment, allowing donors and others to add to the Fund at any time through gifts, donations, and distributions from trusts, estates, or other entities. MIT will use Fund income to provide financial support, including fellowship support, to graduate students studying energy economics, environmental economics, and industrial organization, in accordance with MIT graduate student financial assistance policies and procedures. Support may include funds for the acquisition of research data, for travel to professional meetings, and for other research-related outlays by the students. Recipients of fellowship assistance from the Fund shall be known as Paul L. Joskow Fellows. This grant was made on the occasion of Dr. Joskow’s retirement as President of the Sloan Foundation and in tribute to his decade of service to the Foundation and its mission.

This grant continues a Sloan partnership with the Sundance Film Institute for a series of initiatives that promote the development, production, and distribution of science-themed films. Annual initiatives include The Sloan Commissioning Grant, which is awarded to a screenwriter or producer with an early-stage science-themed project to support its development. The award includes a cash grant; a stipend for a science advisor and research; mentorship; and year?round staff support from Sundance. The Sloan Lab Fellowship in the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, which supports the participation of a filmmaker and his or her science-themed script in the Screenwriters Lab, Screenwriters Intensive, or Creative Producing Summit; Winners participate in the Feature Film Fellows Track at the Sundance Film Festival and are eligible for additional Feature Film Program Labs. The fellowship also includes a grant to support the development of the project, including funds for science research and advice. The Sloan Lab Fellowship in the Sundance Institute Episodic Program, which supports a writer with an early-stage episodic project to support its development for television or online platforms. It includes a cash grant to support the development of the project, a stipend for a science advisor, and mentorship and other support from Sundance staff. The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which is selected by a jury of film and science professionals. This award and accompanying cash prize is presented at the Sundance Film Festival to the writer and director of an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character. The Science-in-Film Forum at the Sundance Film Festival, which is a moderated panel discussion featuring independent filmmakers and leading scientists and technology experts. Grant funds support these initiatives and additional outreach, publicity, and administrative costs for a period of two years.

Funds from this grant continue a partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) to promote the development and release of science-themed films and support filmmakers who explore scientific or technological themes in their work. Each year, the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund issues an open call for new and established filmmakers to submit science-themed film treatments, finished screenplays, or works-in-progress. After a rigorous independent review process, 2-6 projects are selected each year for support. Winning projects receive between $10,000 and $75,000 to help usher the project toward completion. In addition, winners receive year-round support from TFI, including mentorship, workshops, readings, inclusion in the annual TFI Network market, and arranged industry meetings. TFI also hosts a highly publicized and well-attended screening and panel discussion of a science-themed film at the Tribeca Film Festival each year along with an associated reception. Lastly TFI is launching a new Alumni Discretionary Fund that will provide microgrants to previously supported projects, providing a critical intervention that helps ensure supported projects are continuing to move toward production and release. This grant provides support for these and related activities for a period of two years.

This grant supports a series of activities by the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) to nurture, develop, and champion films that explore scientific or technological themes and characters. Supported activities include the awarding of two $35,000 fellowships per year to promising screenwriters who are exploring scientific or technological themes in their work. In addition, SFFS will give an annual award, the Sloan Science in Cinema Prize, to the best science-themed feature film submitted to the the San Francisco Film Festival and will promote the winning film at the festival with a ceremony, screening, post-screening panel, and reception. The Festival will also host a yearly Since in Cinema Project Summit, which will bring together scientists and screenwriters to identify and publicize an annual “top ten” list of new scientific stories that would lend themselves to narrative screenplays. Lastly, SFFS will partner with the Blacklist to identify promising science-themed scripts and bring them to the attention of developers, producers, and other film industry executives. Grant funds support these activities and associated operational costs for the next two years.

This grant provides two years of continued support for the Coolidge Corner Theatre Science on Screen series, a grant program that helps independent theaters across the country pair current, classic, cult, and documentary film screenings with thoughtful introductions by notable figures from the fields of science, technology, and medicine. Grant funds will allow Coolidge to make 56 grants to independent theaters over the next two years, bringing to 70 the number of participating cinemas across the country. Each theater in the Science on Screen series receives a grant of between $4,000-$8,500 to facilitate three screenings a year with expert STEM speakers, at least one of which is a film developed or awarded a prize through the Sloan Foundation’s Film program. Additional grant funds support a National Evening of Science on Screen in which all the participating theaters hold coordinated screenings as well as funds for marketing and promotion of the program, website improvement, SEO optimization, and social media outreach.