Grants Database

The Foundation awards approximately 200 grants per year (excluding the Sloan Research Fellowships), totaling roughly $80 million dollars in annual commitments in support of research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics. This database contains grants for currently operating programs going back to 2008. For grants from prior years and for now-completed programs, see the annual reports section of this website.

Grants Database

Grantee
Amount
City
Year
  • grantee: L.A. Theatre Works
    amount: $500,000
    city: Venice, CA
    year: 2017

    To record four new Sloan plays for public radio broadcast and online streaming, and to develop a new 12-play podcast while disseminating 20 science plays to millions of people and thousands of libraries and schools

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Theater
    • Investigator Susan Loewenberg

    The grant continues support for for the Relativity Series, a Foundation partnership with LA Theatre Works (LATW) to produce, broadcast, and disseminate audio versions of science- or technology-themed plays. Relativity now totals 32 science plays, of which 20 have been commissioned, developed, and/or produced by the Sloan Theater program. Productions are high-quality and feature leading actors, giving recorded plays a life well after their theatrical runs. They are broadcast on over 50 public radio stations in the U.S., on Radio Beijing in China, and on radio in many English-speaking nations. Productions are also distributed via streaming and downloading on the Internet, through educational outreach to over 3,000 teachers and 13,000 community libraries, and through distribution partners such as iTunes, Audible, Amazon, and Overdrive. Grant funds will enable L.A. Theatre Works to produce and distribute audio version of four new science-themed plays over the next two years. Additional funds support a variety of initiatives to expand the reach and impact of the Relativity catalog, including a podcast series; a new website; an educational app; and print, online, and social media outreach.

    To record four new Sloan plays for public radio broadcast and online streaming, and to develop a new 12-play podcast while disseminating 20 science plays to millions of people and thousands of libraries and schools

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  • grantee: Colorado School of Mines
    amount: $277,334
    city: Golden, CO
    year: 2017

    To provide early-career economists and other social scientists with training and an understanding of technological dimensions of electricity distribution systems

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Energy and Environment
    • Investigator Ian Lange

    To properly understand and model the changing US electricity distribution grid, economists and other social scientists need in-depth training on the technological and engineering complexities of the electricity distribution system. This grant provides funding to the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) to organize and host a week-long summer school for early-career economists and other social scientists designed to provide such training. Each week-long summer school, to be held twice each summer over the course of two summers, would include tailored classroom training; engagement and lectures by senior utility, government, and nongovernmental experts; and an experiential component through tutorials held at NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility. Participating expert instructors include those in distribution systems planning (Doug Arent and Michael Coddington), grid integration (Barbara O’Neill), and power systems engineering (Benjamin Kroposki). Summer school participants—which include advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty—will be broadly recruited from professional societies, such as the Association of Environmental and Resource Economics and the United States Association of Energy Economics, and from with universities that have doctoral programs with a strong focus in energy economics.

    To provide early-career economists and other social scientists with training and an understanding of technological dimensions of electricity distribution systems

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  • grantee: Boston University
    amount: $424,360
    city: Boston, MA
    year: 2017

    To develop, evaluate, and transfer to practice a robust framework of distribution locational marginal prices that can improve efficiencies in electricity distribution

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Energy and Environment
    • Investigator Michael Caramanis

    This grant funds work by power systems expert Michael Caramanis to develop a sophisticated, granular framework for pricing electricity at different points on the electricity distribution grid, especially for those systems that feature increased levels of load varying distributed energy resources like consumer solar panels. Decades ago, the introduction of locational marginal prices (LMPs) helped to match generation and consumption in the bulk power system. Caramanis plans to extend this framework and take on the more technically complex challenge of developing distribution network locational marginal prices (DLMP) for different nodes in the electricity distribution grid. After developing algorithms to model DLMP for electricity distribution, Caramais will work in close collaboration with at least two utilities to test his model on actual distribution system networks. The proposed work will help address a critical gap in the academic literature and could lead to improved regulatory policies regarding distribution network pricing.

    To develop, evaluate, and transfer to practice a robust framework of distribution locational marginal prices that can improve efficiencies in electricity distribution

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  • grantee: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    amount: $224,170
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2017

    To undertake a research project examining how market forces, public policies, and technological change affect energy consumption and use in the transportation sector

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Energy and Environment
    • Investigator Christopher Knittel

    This grant funds a project led by Meghan Busse (Northwestern), Christopher Knittel (MIT), and Kate Whitefoot (Carnegie Mellon University) to spur research on energy consumption in the transportation sector by fielding an open call for papers on the topic and providing funding and support to the best submissions. Areas of interest include changing patterns of personal vehicle demand, vehicle electrification, the economics of changing fuels for commercial and heavy-duty vehicles, and the rise of vehicle automation and ride-sharing.  The group will widely distribute an open call for papers, evaluate submissions, select eight papers to receive funding, organize an initial working session to discuss methodology and preliminary research approaches, and hold a final conference to share and disseminate results. Papers will be published as NBER working papers and then submitted to top economics journals.

    To undertake a research project examining how market forces, public policies, and technological change affect energy consumption and use in the transportation sector

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  • grantee: Institute of International Education
    amount: $750,000
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2017

    To provide 25 life-saving fellowships and academic placements for persecuted scholars from around the world over three years

    • Program Research
    • Investigator Sarah Willcox

    The Institute for International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund rescues endangered scholars from any country and discipline in the world and relocates them to a safe haven where they can continue their work as teachers, researchers, writers, and intellectuals. To date, the Fund has rescued and awarded academic fellowships to 681 threatened scholars from 56 countries and relocated them to safety in 360 partner institutions in 42 countries, including such U.S. universities as Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Michigan. These academics have gone on to publish thousands of books and journal articles, often including groundbreaking research; they have filed dozens of scientific patents, attended thousands of academic conferences, and taught thousands of students. This grant provides support to the Scholar Rescue Fund for the rescue and safe relocation of 25 endangered scholars from STEM disciplines over the next three years.

    To provide 25 life-saving fellowships and academic placements for persecuted scholars from around the world over three years

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  • grantee: National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.
    amount: $630,000
    city: White Plains, NY
    year: 2017

    To support scholarships and program expenses for a three-year renewal of a University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) at the University of South Florida

    • Program Higher Education
    • Investigator Michele Lezama

    This grant continues three years of funding for the University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) at the University of South Florida (USF). UCEMs provide scholarships and support services to STEM Ph.D. students who identify as African American/black, Hispanic/Latinx, or American Indian/Alaska Native and who are U.S. citizens. Supported students, known as Sloan Scholars, receive a $40,000 stipend, a standard doctoral student support package, and are eligible to participate in a host of professional development and mentoring opportunities designed to maximize the chances of succeeding in graduate study. For each supported student, UCEMs provide a full doctoral support package to a second minority student through an institutional matching program. In addition to scholarships, grants funds will support the continuation, expansion, and improvement of a host of recruitment, retention, and student support activities, including production of an operational manual of recruitment and retention processes and activities, further development of USF’s multidimensional mentoring model, and programs to help coordinate activities between Sloan Scholars in USF’s Engineering School with those in its College of Marine Sciences.

    To support scholarships and program expenses for a three-year renewal of a University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) at the University of South Florida

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  • grantee: National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.
    amount: $2,000,000
    city: White Plains, NY
    year: 2017

    To provide scholarship support for the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP) enabling consortium members to recruit, support, and graduate Indigenous students earning graduate degrees in STEM disciplines

    • Program Higher Education
    • Investigator Michele Lezama

    Funds from this grant provide scholarships to three years of cohorts of M.S. and Ph.D. students participating in the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership. Supported students are American Indian or Alaska Native scholars enrolled in graduate degree programs in STEM fields at one of the SIGP’s four participating campus systems: Purdue University, the University of Alaska (Anchorage and Fairbanks), the University of Arizona, and the Montana University System (University of Montana, Montana State University, and Montana Tech). Recruitment targets for the next three period include 20 new Native American Ph.D. students and 59 Native American master’s students, of whom 47 will be funded through Sloan funds and 12 will supported by matching funds from SIGP schools. Additional funds support administrative and financial management services provided by NACME, including processing of scholarship applications, EFT forms, and scholarship payments to three new cohorts of SIGP students; tracking scholars’ progression to graduation and recording first employment; participating in select AISES conferences where SIGP program meetings take place; maintaining working relationships with SIGP students, program directors, and program staff at all participating campuses; and reporting twice annually to Sloan on recruitment, retention, and graduation data.

    To provide scholarship support for the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP) enabling consortium members to recruit, support, and graduate Indigenous students earning graduate degrees in STEM disciplines

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  • grantee: Purdue University
    amount: $383,754
    city: West Lafayette, IN
    year: 2017

    To recruit, support, and graduate Indigenous students earning graduate degrees in STEM disciplines through the consortial efforts of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP)

    • Program Higher Education
    • Investigator Kevin Gibson

    Funds from this grant support efforts to coordinate activities between the four campus systems of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP): the University of Arizona, Purdue University, the University of Alaska (Anchorage and Fairbanks), and the Montana University System (University of Montana, Montana State University, and Montana Tech). Goals for the SIGP over the three year grant period include recruitment of 20 new Native American Ph.D. students and 59 Native American M.S. students, an increase in the visibility of SIGP as a national resource for institutions seeking to improve Native American graduate student success in STEM fields; growth in the number of faculty (Native and non-Native) who are knowledgeable about the best practices for mentoring Native students, maintenance of high retention and graduation rates for students in the program, and improved engagement and presence of the SIGP on social media.  Grant funds support administrative and programmatic expenses associated with these goals. Funds for student scholarships over this period are provided through a separate grant to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME).

    To recruit, support, and graduate Indigenous students earning graduate degrees in STEM disciplines through the consortial efforts of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP)

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  • grantee: University of California, San Diego
    amount: $749,760
    city: La Jolla, CA
    year: 2017

    To investigate the fundamental chemistry of indoor surfaces

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Chemistry of Indoor Environments
    • Investigator Vicki Grassian

    This grant supports efforts by Vicki Grassian, Distinguished Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, to monitor the chemistry that occurs on indoor surfaces. Grassian and her team will compare surface adsorption and surface reactions (kinetics, extent of reaction) over a range of different types of material surfaces found in homes, offices, and public spaces, including glass (windows), titanium dioxide (paints and self-cleaning surfaces), concrete, and drywall. She will conduct these experiments on model systems to better understand the chemistry of these materials, as well as on surfaces coated with thin films to determine if they behave differently. Gases of interest include ozone, nicotine, cyclomethylsiloxanes (components of personal care products), ammonia, and co-mixtures of these. In addition, Grassian will conduct a series of controlled experiments that vary the relative humidity, temperature, and light surfaces are exposed to, and measure how chemical reaction mechanisms and reaction kinetics vary across cases. An important aspect of this research is to understand how these factors drive the chemistry of indoor surfaces with gases present in indoor environments. They plan to probe the molecular processes that occur on these indoor surfaces using molecular-based probes such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, vibrational spectroscopy, and scanning probe techniques such as atomic force microscopy. This project will characterize many of the physical and chemical transformations taking place on indoor surfaces and generate new data for indoor chemistry models. This proposal will provide a molecular-level understanding of chemistry on indoor surfaces as affected by important factors such as organic coatings, light, and relative humidity. The results will be shared through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences and meetings. At least two students and one postdoc will be trained.

    To investigate the fundamental chemistry of indoor surfaces

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  • grantee: Stony Brook Foundation
    amount: $15,000
    city: Stony Brook, NY
    year: 2017

    To support diverse participation by graduate students in a summer workshop on macro, behavioral, and experimental economics

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Yair Tauman

    To support diverse participation by graduate students in a summer workshop on macro, behavioral, and experimental economics

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