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: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    amount: $274,965
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2010

    To foster multilateral cooperation in trade, financial regulation, and macroeconomic policy by organizing a forum for leading academics and officials

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Robert Feenstra

    Crises have a way of bringing out "every man for himself" instincts just when cooperation and coordination are most needed. This kind of thinking in 1930 resulted in America's Smoot-Hawley tariff. Its passage provoked the imposition of retaliatory tariffs by many other countries, reduced U.S. exports and imports by 50 percent, and, by most accounts, directly helped bring on the Great Depression. There is considerable reason, therefore, to avoid making similar mistakes in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Robert Feenstra and Alan Taylor are organizing a Global Forum for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) on the topic "Globalization in an Age of Crisis: Multilateral Economic Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century." The event, to be hosted by the Bank of England, is specifically designed to facilitate interaction among leading academics and policymakers from around the world, including existing Sloan Foundation grantees working on theoretical, historical, or institutional aspects of international economics. Participants will be expected not only to critique the research, data, and analyses presented, but also to formulate plans and initiatives for fostering multilateral economic cooperation in the wake of financial turmoil.

    To foster multilateral cooperation in trade, financial regulation, and macroeconomic policy by organizing a forum for leading academics and officials

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  • grantee: Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics
    amount: $245,000
    city: Washington, DC
    year: 2010

    To analyze empirical lessons that countries can learn from the financial crisis about how to restructure their financial sectors

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Adam Posen

    Policies instituted during the 2008 financial crisis may have averted total disaster, but many of these can also make matters worse if left in place. For example, the forced merging of banks now makes the "too big to fail" problem all the more vexing. The structural, regulatory, and institutional reforms needed to address such problems globally will be the subject of a book project led by Adam Posen, a Senior Fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute of International Economics. Those who have begun trying to imagine new structures for the banking and financial sector are, according to Posen, often hobbled by unproven myths about regulation, industrial organization, disclosure requirements, and the incentive systems for banks and bankers. Adam Posen is working on how to indentify, justify, and coordinate the implementation of new financial structures going forward, and funds from this grant provide necessary support for this ongoing work.

    To analyze empirical lessons that countries can learn from the financial crisis about how to restructure their financial sectors

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  • grantee: Harvard University
    amount: $293,299
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2010

    To study behavioral factors that influence consumers' energy utilization and efficiency choices

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Sendhil Mullainathan

    Engineers have been writing for years about how simple steps like home weatherization can save consumers considerable money. Relatively few consumers, however, take such simple, cost-saving steps. Among economists, this puzzling phenomenon is sometimes called the "Energy Efficiency Paradox." This grant will support the work of Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan and the "ideas42" research group he leads, as they pursue six related research projects, all grounded in empirical observation, studying how people make energy consumption and utilization decisions and what policy-relevant conclusions might be drawn from what is learned. The results may be surprising. In previous work with the company OPOWER, for example, Mullainathan's group found that giving consumers information about their neighbors' energy use had significantly greater impact than just providing information about their own energy consumption. Utility companies and federal agencies are presently spending huge amounts of money on energy efficiency and metering programs based on very little in the way of theory, evidence, or experiment. Together with a project manager and several research assistants funded through this grant, the team of outstanding economists, energy experts, psychologists, and marketers that make up "ideas42" are poised to make important contributions to our understanding of the "Energy Efficiency Paradox" and other apparent behavioral anomalies that can be observed when consumers make energy-related decisions.

    To study behavioral factors that influence consumers' energy utilization and efficiency choices

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  • grantee: National Academy of Sciences
    amount: $150,000
    city: Washington, DC
    year: 2010

    To support public interaction with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

    • Program
    • Investigator William Skane

    The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) makes recommendations directly to the President and to the Executive Office of the President. The current co-chairs are Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus, President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Professor Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Important in any administration, PCAST now has especially high stature and an ambitious agenda. For this reason, leaders from PCAST and from the National Academy of Sciences have asked Sloan to join with other private foundations in supporting PCAST as it implements President Obama's call for more open government. Many of the planned report topics are of special interest to the Foundation, including education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; influenza vaccinology; energy research; and carbon offsets. Two thirds of funding from this grant will support travel by approximately ten outside experts to participate in each of ten PCAST meetings. The other third supports electronic communication with the public through webcasts, policy wikis, and other innovative outreach services including social networking.

    To support public interaction with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

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  • grantee: Public Library of Science
    amount: $400,000
    city: San Francisco, CA
    year: 2010

    To develop online hubs as a mechanism for organizing scientific content after it is published

    • Program Technology
    • Sub-program Scholarly Communication
    • Investigator Peter Jerram

    Founded in 2000, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a driving force in the "open access" movement to make the results of scientific research available to everyone. PLoS's vision: a place where anyone from scientists to students to the public could access scientific research online and at no charge. PLoS essentially treats all scientific literature and its associated databases and commentary as a continuous, ever-growing relational database to be explored, mined, and recombined. Under traditional models, scientific papers are sequestered in a specialty, such as Arctic biology, even when the paper might have content equally relevant to marine mammals or molecular ecology. In 2008 and 2009 the Foundation provided grants to PLoS to develop a business plan for creating online "hubs" around scientific and medical subjects and then to create prototypes for subjects of special interest to Sloan, such as DNA barcoding and marine biodiversity. Importantly, PLoS links to all open-access material, not only to material published by PLoS itself. And it will also point to material that is not open-access, even if users may meet frustration in clicking on gated links. The Foundation increasingly sees the concept of PLoS hubs as central to scholarly practice in areas of Foundation interest, including emerging fields such as the microbiology of the indoor environment and Earth's deep carbon. Funds from this grant will support PLoS in the creation of online hubs as a mechanism for organizing scientific content after it is published.

    To develop online hubs as a mechanism for organizing scientific content after it is published

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  • grantee: National Academy of Sciences
    amount: $300,000
    city: Washington, DC
    year: 2010

    As partial support for project to assess the health of U.S. research universities

    • Program
    • Investigator Peter Henderson

    This grant would provide partial support for a proposed 18-month National Academies study to assess the financial, organizational, and intellectual health of U.S. research universities. This assessment has been requested by a bipartisan group of four influential members of Congress: Senators Barbara Mikulski and Lamar Alexander, and Representatives Bart Gordon and Ralph Hall. Research universities are central to most Sloan programs and the Foundation has a longstanding interest in their financial, organizational, and intellectual strength. The health of many of these institutions is arguably in question now, due to the severe fiscal problems faced by most state governments that have led to sharp budget stringencies on public research universities, and the parallel endowment declines and other financial challenges being faced by private research universities. Funds from this grant represent 20 percent of the total study budget of $1.5 million.

    As partial support for project to assess the health of U.S. research universities

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  • grantee: Tribeca Film Institute
    amount: $192,784
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2010

    To create a two-year pilot to establish an annual Sloan Grand Jury Prize for the Best Student Science Screenplay and to develop this script through the Tribeca/Sloan Filmmaker Fund

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Beth Janson

    This grant to the Tribeca Film Institute will fund a pilot program to establish an annual Grand Jury Prize award for the single best student screenplay among the Foundation's six film school partners and to develop that script towards production. The aim of the award is to stimulate greater interest and excitement among the participating film schools and film students by awarding a "best of the best" prize and by fast-tracking the winning project for development so it becomes a major career opportunity for the winner. If successful, the award promises to lift the visibility and prestige of both of the winning filmmaker, his school, and the Sloan Film program as a whole.

    To create a two-year pilot to establish an annual Sloan Grand Jury Prize for the Best Student Science Screenplay and to develop this script through the Tribeca/Sloan Filmmaker Fund

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  • grantee: American Museum of the Moving Image
    amount: $239,631
    city: Astoria, NY
    year: 2010

    To showcase award-winning student films and to maintain a go-to site for all Sloan film and television projects and for all Sloan Film Program participants

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Carl Goodman

    This grant supports the continued operation of the Sloan Science and Film website, scienceandfilm.org. Hosted and operated by the American Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), America's leading film museum, the site showcases student films produced by the Foundation's film school partners and provides a synopsis of all film projects under development with the Foundation's six film school and four film festival partners, promoting the Sloan Film program while serving as a key resource for program participants. The MoMI website remains an essential component of the Sloan Film program and the nearest thing to one-stop shopping for those seeking to learn about the program in all its aspects. The site has approximately 50 award-winning Sloan films available in their entirety for live streaming, making it an up-to-date showcase and a constantly evolving cinematheque for science film shorts. In addition, the site has an interactive directory that lists and describes every winning student screenplay and film, and includes every film project under development with our four main partners: Sundance, Hamptons, Tribeca and Film Independent. The MoMI Sloan Science and Film website remains a unique, state-of-the art feature that very few non-profit programs, or even for-profit film companies, can boast.

    To showcase award-winning student films and to maintain a go-to site for all Sloan film and television projects and for all Sloan Film Program participants

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  • grantee: National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.
    amount: $4,050,463
    city: White Plains, NY
    year: 2010

    To fund new obligations incurred in the Sloan Minority Ph.D. Program and the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Program from July 1, 2010 through July 1, 2011

    • Program Higher Education
    • Initiative Minority Ph.D.
    • Investigator Aileen Walter

    The National Action Council for Miniorities in Engineering (NACME) has been the Foundation's longtime partner in its grantmaking in the Education for Underrepresented Groups program, administering both the Minority Ph.D. program and the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership. NACME receives applications, selects students for scholarships, administers awards, and supports recruitment efforts by participating faculty. This grant funds new obligations in these programs incurred from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. Funds will be used to provide scholarships to newly accepted minority Ph.D. students in both programs, support efforts to recruit new students, and support established "feeder" programs at North Carolina A&T and the University of Puerto Rico that have proven successful in graduating minority students who go on to graduate study in science and engineering.

    To fund new obligations incurred in the Sloan Minority Ph.D. Program and the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Program from July 1, 2010 through July 1, 2011

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  • grantee: University of Arizona
    amount: $144,540
    city: Tucson, AZ
    year: 2010

    To fund, for an additional three years, the recruitment and retention portion of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership at the University of Arizona

    • Program Higher Education
    • Investigator Maria Velez

    The University of Arizona was the first campus to participate in the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership and it remains the flagship of the program. Funds from this grant will support the University's efforts to recruit qualified indigenous students to its program, and to provide the resources and institutional support necessary to meet the needs of students from indigenous or tribal backgrounds. Providing such support is a crucial component of enabling indigenous students to successfully complete graduate work, and the University of Arizona anticipates that through its efforts, degree completion among supported students will exceed 90%, an estimate consistent with its record thus far

    To fund, for an additional three years, the recruitment and retention portion of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership at the University of Arizona

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