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: Stony Brook Foundation
    amount: $36,696
    city: Stony Brook, NY
    year: 2021

    To support science-themed episodes on Alan Alda’s “Clear+Vivid” podcast

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Laura Lindenfeld

    This grant supports the production of Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda, a weekly podcast where the internationally acclaimed actor and science communicator interviews the nation’s leading intellectuals, scientists, artists, advocates, and thinkers.  Grant funds will support seven episodes of Clear+Vivid, now in its 14th season, to allow Alda to conduct interviews with scientists on a range of interesting and socially relevant topics, including AI, social cognition, brain trauma, robotics, neuroscience, psychiatry and optogenetics, philosophy in science, and forgetfulness. Episodes will be released through major podcasting platforms, on Clear+Vivid’s feed, and will be promoted by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, the nation’s leading science communication research, training, and education organization. The episodes will be released in late 2021 and early 2022.

    To support science-themed episodes on Alan Alda’s “Clear+Vivid” podcast

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  • grantee: Electronic Frontier Foundation
    amount: $376,684
    city: San Francisco, CA
    year: 2021

    To support the research, development, and launch of “How to Fix the Internet,” an in-depth podcast about the problems of the modern Web geared towards a lay audience

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Rainey Reitman

    This grant supports the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) new podcast series, How to Fix the Internet, which explores the challenges posed by big tech and what consumers can do to protect themselves and their privacy and security. EFF is an international digital rights group focusing on technical tools, litigation, and public education. Over the course of two seasons of ten one-hour episodes, its new podcast will give listeners an awareness of and appreciation for the technologies that surround us every day, the policies and choices embedded in those technologies, and the role of corporations and laws in steering our digital world—allowing people to make more informed choices as they gain a deeper understanding of new technologies.

    To support the research, development, and launch of “How to Fix the Internet,” an in-depth podcast about the problems of the modern Web geared towards a lay audience

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  • grantee: New York Public Radio
    amount: $600,000
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2021

    To support story-driven health care reporting at WNYC, including coverage of health and health care policy and economics, COVID 19 and climate change, and medical science and discovery

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Nsikan Akpan

    To support story-driven health care reporting at WNYC, including coverage of health and health care policy and economics, COVID 19 and climate change, and medical science and discovery

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  • grantee: National Public Radio, Inc.
    amount: $650,000
    city: Washington, DC
    year: 2021

    To support NPR’s coverage of economics via two podcasts, Planet Money and The Indicator; online short videos; a weekly newsletter; and educational outreach

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Erin Sells

    This grant continues core operational support for the production and broadcast of Planet Money, National Public Radio’s (NPR) award winning media brand devoted to the production of accurate, accessible, and engaging reporting on the American economy. Planet Money is best known for its acclaimed twice-weekly podcasts, which take deep dives into the latest economic news and reached over one million downloads per episode during their first month. More recently, Planet Money launched a new, short-form economics podcast, The Indicator, which is produced daily and allows them to be more responsive to the news cycle. To date, The Indicator averages over 350,000 downloads in its first month, which brings the total monthly audience for Planet Money podcasts to nearly 1.4 million listeners. Grant funds will allow Planet Money to continue the production of more than 300 podcast episodes per year—approximately 100 new episodes of Planet Money and approximately 200 new episodes of The Indicator—as well as five to six episodes of its online video series, Planet Money Shorts, and 150 TikTok videos each year.

    To support NPR’s coverage of economics via two podcasts, Planet Money and The Indicator; online short videos; a weekly newsletter; and educational outreach

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  • grantee: Broad Institute, Inc.
    amount: $12,000
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2020

    To support Brave New Planet, a science podcast about the social, economic, and health implications of advances in science and technology

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Eric Lander

    To support Brave New Planet, a science podcast about the social, economic, and health implications of advances in science and technology

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  • grantee: Food & Environment Reporting Network
    amount: $239,646
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To support immersive science storytelling on food and agriculture via the award-winning, female-hosted Gastropod podcast

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Tom Laskawy

    To support immersive science storytelling on food and agriculture via the award-winning, female-hosted Gastropod podcast

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  • grantee: PRX Incorporated
    amount: $75,000
    city: Boston, MA
    year: 2019

    To support a one-day symposium on the emerging systemic threats to the openness of podcasting, including corporate consolidation and data privacy

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Andrew Kuklewicz

    To support a one-day symposium on the emerging systemic threats to the openness of podcasting, including corporate consolidation and data privacy

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  • grantee: Science Friday Initiative, Inc.
    amount: $700,000
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To support Science Friday, focusing on science and the arts, including radio broadcasts, digital science videos, blog posts, live events, and associated media

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Ira Flatow

    This grant provides three years of support for the production and distribution of Science Friday, the only regular weekly show on public radio devoted to all things science. Hosted by Ira Flatow and reaching a weekly audience of some two million through radio, streaming, social media, and the web, Science Friday is a uniquely powerful platform for advancing the public understanding of science. Supported activities over the grant period include production and distribution of 150 radio segments for broadcast; 12 to 18 digital videos; 36 digital pieces in the popular SciCandy series on photography; continued production of the biweekly Science Friday newsletter, Science Diction; the hosting of three live events in the “Science Goes to the Movies” series; and continuation of the Sci Arts Book Club. Additional grant funds support outreach and engagement activities to publicize Science Friday content and broaden its audience.

    To support Science Friday, focusing on science and the arts, including radio broadcasts, digital science videos, blog posts, live events, and associated media

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  • grantee: Documentary Educational Resources
    amount: $150,774
    city: Watertown, MA
    year: 2019

    To support two radio documentaries on the evolving role of libraries and library technology as part of the Humankind public radio series

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator David Freudberg

    To support two radio documentaries on the evolving role of libraries and library technology as part of the Humankind public radio series

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  • grantee: Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association Inc.
    amount: $500,000
    city: Arlington, VA
    year: 2019

    To support Making Sen$e, Paul Solman's economic and business segments on PBS NewsHour, and related online content

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Radio
    • Investigator Lee Koromvokis

    This grant provides one year of support to the PBS NewsHour to continue its regular broadcast of Making Sen$e with Paul Solman, a biweekly segment that explains business and economic issues clearly and engagingly to a general audience both on air and online. Grant funds support the production of 25 7-to-10-minute Making Sen$e broadcast segments on major issues facing the American and global economy, such as how populism and the Trump administration are reshaping economic policy, how to interpret the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report, how the Federal Reserve works, the impact of new corporate tax breaks on the deficit, and trends in the job market, wages, and money management. Additional grant funds will support the production of hundreds of original pieces of web native content that deepen and extend the issued covered in Solman’s on-air segments.

    To support Making Sen$e, Paul Solman's economic and business segments on PBS NewsHour, and related online content

    More
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