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: Memorial University of Newfoundland
    amount: $49,800
    city: St. John's, Canada, Canada
    year: 2017

    To share the key results from the Chemistry of Indoor Environments program and the Microbiology of the Built Environment program

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Chemistry of Indoor Environments
    • Investigator Cora Young

    To share the key results from the Chemistry of Indoor Environments program and the Microbiology of the Built Environment program

    More
  • grantee: WGBH Educational Foundation
    amount: $1,000,000
    city: Boston, MA
    year: 2016

    For a two-hour NOVA special, Beyond the Elements, that investigates the substances composed of the elements in the periodic table and accompanying educational outreach and marketing

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Television
    • Investigator Paula Apsell

    Funds from this grant support the production of a two-hour NOVA special, Beyond the Elements, that will explore the millions of substances that make up everything in our world or that we create from about 100 naturally occurring elements in the periodic table. Conceived as a follow-up to NOVA’s popular (and also Sloan-supported) Hunting the Elements, the special will be divided into thematic segments. One will focus on the chemistry of substances that drove trade during humanity’s age of exploration, such as salt, pepper, caffeine, nicotine, morphine, silk, and porcelain. Another will focus on molecules related to life itself, such as amino acids, DNA, nitrogen, and the molecular changes caused when we cook food. A third segment will focus on synthetic molecules, such as neoprene, nylon, and Kevlar, that are produced through modern industrial processes. This special will be hosted by popular technology writer David Pogue, and will be accompanied by significant online and on-air outreach efforts by NOVA, including a 3- to 5-minute immersive video piece about a molecule that changed the course of history, a suite of online articles on NOVA Next, a collection of PBS Learning Media resources, virtual field trips for science classrooms, and screening events at museums and science centers.

    For a two-hour NOVA special, Beyond the Elements, that investigates the substances composed of the elements in the periodic table and accompanying educational outreach and marketing

    More
  • grantee: Wikimedia Foundation
    amount: $3,015,000
    city: San Francisco, CA
    year: 2016

    To transform Wikipedia Commons' media files from free text into machine-readable, structured data, enabling new uses for millions of media files on Wikipedia and across the web

    • Program Technology
    • Sub-program Universal Access to Knowledge
    • Investigator Katherine Maher

    Wikimedia Commons is the world's largest repository of freely licensed educational media, with 34 million photo, video, and audio files, and is growing by some five million files a year—faster than Wikipedia itself—as people submit photos and image-rich institutions their collections. Unfortunately, most of those files are not accessible either to Wikipedia text searches or to the rest of the internet because they lack good metadata. To address the lack of metadata, the Wikimedia Foundation has launched the Structured Data on Commons Project, an ambitious attempt to create infrastructure and tools that will transform all the media files on Wikimedia Commons into an accessible form—known as structured, linked data—that is machine readable and will enable easy search of the Commons by Wikipedia readers and contributors; by educational, cultural, and scientific organizations; and by anyone with access to the web. Once cleaned and integrated, the structured data for each file can be understood by machines and linked to other content on the wider internet. The structured data can also be instantly available in any language, answering a huge need for the 289 languages that comprise Wikipedia and facilitating greater interoperability among language communities. Structured data will also allow developers both within and outside Wikipedia to create software tools to help with use and reuse of these files. It will help contributors more effectively illustrate Wikipedia content and it will enable readers to more quickly and easily find the right media and share it. It will also allow for more partnerships with content providers and provide incentives for these providers to structure their media when releasing it to the public.

    To transform Wikipedia Commons' media files from free text into machine-readable, structured data, enabling new uses for millions of media files on Wikipedia and across the web

    More
  • grantee: Digital Public Library of America, Inc.
    amount: $1,497,674
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2016

    To leverage DPLA's national network for the creation of a free eBook collection available in 50 states and a pilot eBook marketplace for thousands of libraries and schools

    • Program Technology
    • Sub-program Universal Access to Knowledge
    • Investigator Daniel Cohen

    Funds from this grant support a two-pronged initiative by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) to significantly expand access to eBooks for thousands of libraries and schools across the country. First, DPLA plans to improve the curation and distribution of open eBook content by creating a new DPLA eBook collection, which it will make available to 16,000 libraries across the country. Working with authors, publishers, and both corporate and nonprofit partners, the DPLA collection will include at least 3,000 popular fiction and nonfiction titles, textbooks, and educational resources, all formatted in the highly flexible EPUB format. Second, the DPLA will pilot a new spin-off entity, which will use market-based methods to increase the availability and reduce the price of eBooks from publishers and potentially generate revenue for DPLA and its library partners. Building on work done with the New York Public Library, the DPLA will explore different revenue models for a nationwide marketplace for buying eBooks, with licensing restrictions, that aims to enable low-cost bulk purchases of eBooks for statewide virtual libraries, promising to significantly expand access to eBooks to millions across the country.

    To leverage DPLA's national network for the creation of a free eBook collection available in 50 states and a pilot eBook marketplace for thousands of libraries and schools

    More
  • grantee: North Carolina State University
    amount: $80,000
    city: Raleigh, NC
    year: 2016

    To support research and writing of a book, "Never Home Alone," that engages the general public in the history and science of the microbiology of the built environment

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Books
    • Investigator Robert Dunn

    To support research and writing of a book, "Never Home Alone," that engages the general public in the history and science of the microbiology of the built environment

    More
  • grantee: Oren Harman
    amount: $50,000
    city: Tel Aviv, Israel
    year: 2016

    To support the writing of a book, Evolutions, that juxtaposes the most current scientific understanding of cosmology and the evolution with myths

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Books
    • Investigator Oren Harman

    To support the writing of a book, Evolutions, that juxtaposes the most current scientific understanding of cosmology and the evolution with myths

    More
  • grantee: Adam Becker
    amount: $50,000
    city: Oakland, CA
    year: 2016

    To research and write a book on the history of the foundations of quantum physics, with a particular emphasis on the continued dominance of the troubled "Copenhagen interpretation"

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Books
    • Investigator Adam Becker

    To research and write a book on the history of the foundations of quantum physics, with a particular emphasis on the continued dominance of the troubled "Copenhagen interpretation"

    More
  • grantee: Charles Graeber
    amount: $50,000
    city: Brooklyn, NY
    year: 2016

    To support the writing of a book, The Breakthrough, to enhance public understanding of the science behind recent advances in cancer immunotherapy

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Books
    • Investigator Charles Graeber

    To support the writing of a book, The Breakthrough, to enhance public understanding of the science behind recent advances in cancer immunotherapy

    More
  • grantee: University of Maryland, College Park
    amount: $50,000
    city: College Park, MD
    year: 2016

    To support development and outreach activities of the SocArXiv preprint server

    • Program Technology
    • Sub-program Scholarly Communication
    • Investigator Philip Cohen

    To support development and outreach activities of the SocArXiv preprint server

    More
  • grantee: University of Minnesota Foundation
    amount: $75,000
    city: Minneapolis, MN
    year: 2016

    To expand public awareness of the groundbreaking work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, through an exhibition and book of his drawings

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program New Media
    • Investigator Lyndel King

    To expand public awareness of the groundbreaking work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, through an exhibition and book of his drawings

    More
We use cookies to analyze our traffic. Please decide if you are willing to accept cookies from our website.