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: University of Minnesota
    amount: $940,955
    city: Minneapolis, MN
    year: 2024

    To study what limits the range of proteins built by natural cells, and to engineer a translation system that builds a wider range of proteins than is possible in natural cells

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Matter-to-Life
    • Investigator Kate Adamala

    Building a simple form of cellular life from scratch is an ambitious goal, and working towards that goal will advance our understanding of living systems. One promising strategy to achieve this goal is based on the intuition that by avoiding the highly evolved and complex biomolecules found in present day cells, it should be possible to build a (proto)cell that’s much simpler than a natural cell. Professor Katarzyna (Kate) Adamala, an Assistant Professor of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development at the University of Minnesota, takes a different view. She’s open to using any molecules at her disposal to build life from scratch, and her approach to circumventing the complexity of modern cells is -somewhat paradoxically- to dive into molecular complexity. Her thinking is that it should be possible to engineer a complex, multifunctional protein that does what natural cells use several proteins to achieve. If she’s right, then what’s achieved by a complex network of chemical reactions in a natural cell could be achieved by a much simpler set of reactions in a synthetic cell that leverages more complex proteins. This grant supports Professor Adamala’s work aimed at circumventing the complexity of the chemical networks found in present-day cells by engineering more complex proteins. Natural cells are limited to building a tiny fraction of all possible proteins; primarily because they’re restricted to using a small fraction (22) of the known amino acids (~500). Adamala will study what limits which amino acids natural cells use to build proteins, circumvent those limits, and engineer a protein synthesis system -and an associated synthetic cell- that can build a wider range of proteins than can be built by natural cells. Adamala and her team plan to learn about the limitations of natural protein synthesis and expand the chemical diversity of translation via three activities. First, they will evolve the standard ribosome so that it’s capable of building proteins from noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs), amino acids other than the 22 used by natural cells. Second, they will engineer a modified version of a certain protein that’s known to ‘rescue’ failed protein translation. The modified protein will be able to rescue stalled translation involving noncanonical amino acids. Third, the researchers will engineer an RNA translation system that incorporates up to 20 ncAAs. Adamala and her colleagues will use these three products to create a synthetic cell -a liposome vesicle encapsulating “cytoplasm”--that is capable of expanded translation.

    To study what limits the range of proteins built by natural cells, and to engineer a translation system that builds a wider range of proteins than is possible in natural cells

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  • grantee: American University
    amount: $951,463
    city: Washington, DC
    year: 2024

    To develop and implement a community-oriented engagement approach on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) in partnership with [C]Worthy, a focused research organization

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Energy and Environment
    • Investigator Sara Nawaz

    The ocean is the world’s largest carbon sink, absorbing approximately 30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. As more carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean, the ocean becomes more acidic and less able to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A growing number of scholars are investigating a process called Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE), whereby alkaline (basic) natural substances, such as pulverized and calcium-rich rocks, are released into the ocean to increase the capacity for further carbon dioxide absorption. OAE is one of the main approaches among a larger portfolio of technologies and interventions know as marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR). mCDR is a nascent and growing field, with numerous technologies being studied and pilot-tested for deployment. Questions remain, however, about the technical feasibility and societal acceptance of mCDR interventions. At this early juncture, understanding community perspectives on OAE and mCDR technologies is critical. This grant funds a collaboration led by Sara Nawaz, Director of Research at the Institute for Carbon Removal at American University and Alicia Karspeck, founder and Chief Technology Officer at [C]Worthy, a Focused Research Organization.  Together, they plan to conduct a series of in-depth community engagement activities around two upcoming OAE field trials, one in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and the other off the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.  Grant funds will support Nawaz, Karspeck, and their team of two early-career scholars to engage stakeholders in each region to better understand public attitudes towards OAE and mCDR. The team will establish Community Advisory Boards consisting of participants from local environmental non-governmental organizations, Tribal communities, industry associations, port authorities, and local government representatives who can engage a broad swath of community stakeholders. In each locale, the team will organize two workshops to surface community concerns, address questions related to the OAE field trials and discuss priorities for how mCDR might impact these regions. In addition to providing information on OAE and mCDR approaches, the workshops will feature interactive scenario exercises designed to prompt deliberations about the future of larger scale mCDR. In addition to generating scholarly outputs, the team plans to publish a “Community Priorities on mCDR” document for each study region and will produce a toolkit for other researchers looking to recreate this in-depth model of community engaged research. The team will also develop and share insights about how social scientists can effectively engage with Focused Research Organizations in community-engaged research.

    To develop and implement a community-oriented engagement approach on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) in partnership with [C]Worthy, a focused research organization

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  • grantee: Digital Public Library of America, Inc.
    amount: $1,009,393
    city: Boston, MA
    year: 2024

    To support the transition of the DPLA cultural heritage aggregation project to a new institutional home and develop a strategic plan for the future of DPLA

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Special Initiatives
    • Investigator John Bracken

    This grant to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) provides funding to transfer the organization’s core cultural aggregation effort—which includes the curation of more than 50 million digital objects from 6,000 libraries and archives nationwide—to the Free Library of Philadelphia. Grant funds will permit DPLA to migrate its entire collection, including all related metadata, to the Free Library, while continuing to preserve, manage and grow the collection over the next two years. Planned expenditures include outlays for data migration, technical integration into the Free Library’s existing systems, quality assurance, and staffing. Additional funds will support a strategic planning process in 2025 aimed at developing roadmap for the future of DPLA after the transition is completed.

    To support the transition of the DPLA cultural heritage aggregation project to a new institutional home and develop a strategic plan for the future of DPLA

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  • grantee: University of Southern California
    amount: $684,700
    city: Los Angeles, CA
    year: 2024

    To develop an equity-minded, law-attentive organizational learning series for higher education institutions seeking to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion

    • Program Higher Education
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Steve Desir

    This grant supports an effort by the University of Southern California Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice (CERPP)—in partnership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and EducationCounsel—to develop an equity-minded, law-attentive organizational learning series. The series will support institutions of higher education as they continue to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in their respective communities in light of evolving legal and policy environments. Project activities center on three key components. First, the team will create 8-10 educational videos (10-15 minutes in length) that provide digestible summaries of key legal, policy, and research concepts pertaining to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in legally sustainable ways. Second, the team will host a webinar series featuring a robust, interactive curriculum for teams of campus stakeholders to engage in shared learning, facilitated dialogue, and action planning on program design. While this webinar series will be live and interactive, key content will be recorded and made available as on-demand resources. Third, the project will convene 5-7 teams of campus stakeholders, including legal counsel, senior leadership (i.e., provost), and other policymaking and decision-making positions (i.e., deans) to address a specific problem of practice. Participants will be offered additional technical assistance following the convening, including correspondence and consultations with experts who can provide insight on equity-minded, law-attentive practice, managing the change process, and interpreting data/research. The project promises to provide both high-level information and hands-on engagement to help educators effectively navigate the increasingly challenging legal and policy landscape around diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.

    To develop an equity-minded, law-attentive organizational learning series for higher education institutions seeking to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion

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  • grantee: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    amount: $798,940
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2024

    To continue support for a network of museum partners focused on scientific research in the fields of cultural heritage and art conservation through access to expert researchers and advanced equipment

    • Program New York City Program
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Marco Leona

    This grant provides funding for the Scientific Research Partnerships (SRP) program, an initiative at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that seeks to offer other museums, libraries, and other cultural heritage institutions access to expert scientific researchers and state-of-the-art instruments housed at The Met. The Met’s scientific activities are led by Marco Leona, the David H. Koch Scientist in Charge, who heads a small team focused on the science of art conservation. Anchored in material science and chemistry, conservation science applies contemporary imaging and analytic techniques to questions of the history of artistic practice. Research questions vary from project to project, with recent projects ranging from what might be learned from the coatings of Egyptian funerary objects to the discovery of a painted-over King Charles Cavalier Spaniel in one of Picasso’s early works.  The SRP works to build partnerships that put these scientific capabilities at the service of other institutions.  To date, the SRP network has 19 such partnerships, including with the New York Municipal Archives, the American Folk Art Museum, and the Pratt Institute. Grant funds will support one Associate Research Scientist and two Research Assistant positions, as well as maintenance fees for some of The Met’s scientific equipment. A particular focus for the next three years will be the expansion of partnerships to less-well-resourced institutions that engage with different communities across the city.

    To continue support for a network of museum partners focused on scientific research in the fields of cultural heritage and art conservation through access to expert researchers and advanced equipment

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  • grantee: The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc.
    amount: $346,500
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2024

    To support an annual scientific biography fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography that will result in three new major biographies of scientists and/or technologists

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Books
    • Investigator Kai Bird

    This grant provides continued support to the Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY (the Center) for the Sloan Fellowship for Science Biography. Dedicated to biographers focusing on the lives of scientists or technological innovators, the fellowship includes a $72,000 stipend for the selected biographer, funds for a research assistant, and a year-long residency at the Center that includes frequent meetings, lectures, and workshops with other biographers. Fellowships are awarded by an independent committee of scientists and scholars, who in the past has included Center’s Executive Director Kai Bird, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Robert Oppenheimer, American Prometheus; Leslie Berlin, Project Historian for Stanford University’s Silicon Valley Archives; Harvard Professor and Charles Darwin biographer Janet Browne; physics historian Daniel Kevles; science biographer Nancy Greenspan; Princeton Professor and medical historian Keith Wailoo; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes.

    To support an annual scientific biography fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography that will result in three new major biographies of scientists and/or technologists

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  • grantee: California Institute of Technology
    amount: $600,000
    city: Pasadena, CA
    year: 2024

    To develop a platform that integrates synthetic cell technologies, thereby creating new research opportunities for the synthetic cell community

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Matter-to-Life
    • Investigator Richard Murray

    An emerging global community of several hundred researchers has started to build cells from scratch by combining small molecules, purified proteins, lipids, and synthetic DNA to assemble simple synthetic cells from scratch. While this community has developed a wide range of ‘modules’ that implement various cellular processes and functions, the fact that these modules are developed independently (in different laboratories) is creating obstacles to progress. For instance, modules are intended to operate within a synthetic cell fluid (cytosol) but their creation across independent laboratories means that they are not developed in a standardized cytosol. This often leads to incompatibilities whereby the conditions that optimize the chemical performance of one module render another either non-functional or poorly performing. This grant to Richard Murray, a Professor of Control & Dynamical Systems and of Bioengineering at Caltech, and Akshay Maheshwari, co-founder and CEO of a company (b.next) “working to democratize synthetic cell engineering”, supports the continued development of Nucleus, a platform that provides a standardized suite of hardware components (chemicals / molecules) and procedures / recipes that can be used to build synthetic cells at varying levels of complexity. Murray and Maheshwari plan to develop three ‘modules’ that expand the technical capabilities of Nucleus, and to enclose the improved Nucleus cytosol within a lipid membrane to produce the first Nucleus synthetic cell. First, they will characterize the Nucleus cytosol performance (yield of transcription and translation) as a function of cytosol molecular composition, with the goal of identifying the molecular composition that best supports simultaneous operation of various modules. The Nucleus cytosol will be characterized across a wide range of various small molecule and protein concentrations, as well as under various conditions of RNA and ribosome abundance. They will also develop tools for implementing modules as ‘DNA constructs’, custom-designed DNA sequences that can be used to synthesize targeted proteins. Murray and Maheshwari will then develop three modules to improve the Nucleus cytosol. The first module aims to increases energy capacity by fostering energy recycling. The existing Nucleus cytosol uses certain energy-resource molecules that when metabolized produce toxins that accumulate and eventually poison the cytosol. The plan is to leverage a chemical pathway that uses a certain enzyme to regenerate the energy resource molecules from the toxins, thereby removing the toxins and replenishing energy resources.  The second module aims to control protein-expression through dynamic (time varying) control of protein abundance.  The existing Nucleus cytosol only allows for protein synthesis, with no ability to reduce protein abundance; a situation that amounts to a limitation on the ability to control the dynamics within a synthetic cell. The team will develop a module that uses a protein enzyme to continuously degrade targeted proteins and thereby provide temporal control over protein abundance. Lastly, the team will develop a ‘membrane-protein module’ and encapsulate the improved cytosol to create a Nucleus synthetic cell. The module will be used for inserting proteins into a synthetic cell lipid membrane; proteins that can transport nutrients into and waste out of a synthetic cell, as well as enable membrane-based cell-cell communication and implementation of various membrane-based molecular sensors. Finally, Murray and Maheshwari will encapsulate the improved membrane-module-enhanced cytosol and reoptimize the performance of the encapsulated cytosol to create a Nucleus synthetic cell. If successful, this project will lead to a novel, open-source platform for building synthetic cells that is accessed and further developed by the global synthetic cell community.

    To develop a platform that integrates synthetic cell technologies, thereby creating new research opportunities for the synthetic cell community

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  • grantee: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    amount: $815,854
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2024

    To study transportation infrastructure challenges in the United States, including project selection, financing strategies, and procurement practices

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Edward Glaeser

    Compared with the United States, it is noticeably easier in Europe, Japan, and some other countries to get people or products from one place to another. Speculation about why is easy. Serious diagnoses and practical remedies are much harder since these should rely on models, data, and analysis. Recently organized to address such challenges, the Transportation Infrastructure Procurement and Financing Project (TIPFP) is a research effort based at NBER that is mobilizing a variety of experts, institutions, and approaches. TIPFP is laser-focused on the problem of transportation infrastructure. Roads, bridges, ports, and transit systems cost trillions of dollars annually and play a critical role both in the U.S. economy and in the world’s trading network. TIPFP leaders Ed Glaeser of Harvard and Jim Poterba of MIT plan to investigate three specific questions that have emerged as having the greatest promise and priority: Are we choosing the right transportation projects to fund? Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of some sort always accompanies such decisions, but it is often perfunctory and incomplete. Infrastructure projects require large up-front fixed costs and deliver benefits over long periods of time. So there can be significant uncertainty about the rate of return on new projects, not to mention sensitivity to assumed discount rates and long-term growth rates. These are, moreover, just complications when evaluating one project at a time. What people really care about is how well the whole transportation system performs. TIPFP will provide decision-makers with better tools, especially since one of the defining properties of infrastructure is that it is very hard to change once built. Why do such infrastructure projects cost so much? By many estimates, similar transportation projects are three times as expensive in the United States as in other countries. Costs also vary dramatically from one U.S. state to another, as do procurement processes, renegotiation procedures, and regulations of all sorts. TIPFP will systematically compile and compare data about all these variations to inform its analyses. One hypothesis to test is that “state capacity” really matters, i.e., the technocratic expertise that government officials can bring to bear when managing how construction contractors approach everything from auction bidding through project completion. How should we fund transportation infrastructure projects? Gasoline taxes currently contribute over $40 billion annually to the federal government’s Highway Trust Fund, for example. These contributions will dry up as Electric Vehicles (EVs) become more prevalent. Other sources have been proposed, but perhaps much more important is the possibility of also instituting new rules for determining how those new funds will be distributed. Current mechanisms for subsidizing projects provide poor incentives to control costs or maximize benefits. Again, TIPFP will compile and compare information about alternative allocation methods, including case studies from other countries for publication in a conference volume.

    To study transportation infrastructure challenges in the United States, including project selection, financing strategies, and procurement practices

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  • grantee: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    amount: $824,760
    city: Cambridge, MA
    year: 2024

    To support early-career researchers working on the net federal budgetary impacts of proposed legislation for enhancing U.S. productivity

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Economics
    • Investigator Timothy Bresnahan

    The Yale economist and 1981 Nobel laureate James Tobin is often quoted as saying, “The most important decisions a scholar makes are what problems to work on.”  Rather than trying to fill gaps in the literature, he continued, “The best economists have taken their subjects from the world around them.” On this view, perhaps academics seeking policy relevance need to reformulate and reframe the problems they work on with the real world more in mind?  That belief animates Tim Bresnahan, an economics professor emeritus at Stanford, and the team of other experts he leads.  Their goal is not just to inspire dozens more papers about the productivity (i.e., output per input) of the U.S. economy, but rather to inspire a new generation of researchers who study productivity questions in ways that are truly policy-relevant. Specifically, when legislation comes up that could enhance U.S. productivity or, for that matter, when legislation is proposed on nearly any topic, discussions in Congress that determine its fate depend far less on predicted consequences for the economy as a whole than on predicted consequences for the federal budget deficit.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a strictly nonpartisan and highly respected group of technocrats charged with “scoring” proposed bills in terms of their likely effect on federal revenues and expenditures. In contrast, academic economists are almost always concerned with policy impacts on growth, labor, equity, and the economy in general rather than on the budget deficit in particular.  The importance of CBO scoring has, to date, been largely ignored.  In concert with other offices like the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), these ratings are generated according to Congressionally mandated guidelines that—for the sake of consistency and practicality—oversimplify many issues.  They rarely, for example, consider any time frame longer than ten years!  CBO is not prohibited from also conducting more sophisticated analyses, but is severely constrained by a lack of evidence, models, and time.  Hence their recent appeal to academic researchers for help on specific topics that was published in the influential Journal of Economic Perspectives. Three of the challenges called out in the CBO’s “request for research” are estimating net returns on R&D investments, on immigration practices, and on permitting reforms.  In each case, the significant costs and benefits of particular policies are potentially much longer term than Congress usually takes into account.  These topics also intersect well with Sloan priorities: the ROI on research and development is a critical question in the economics of science; immigrant contributions are a critical factor in regional economic development; and construction permitting is a critical problem in creating transportation infrastructure. Over the next two years, this grant will support 24 early-career investigators working in these three areas as “NBER Productivity Fellows.”  They will benefit from mentoring, community engagement, connections with government officials and datasets, as well as, in the case of graduate students, modest stipends to free them from other obligations.  The grant will also fund a workshop in Washington for researchers and practitioners working on U.S. productivity enhancements in policy-relevant, technocratic, nonpartisan, and real-world ways.

    To support early-career researchers working on the net federal budgetary impacts of proposed legislation for enhancing U.S. productivity

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  • grantee: Rockefeller University
    amount: $1,750,000
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2024

    To study how mechanical force impacts the fidelity of transcription and coordinates the development of multicellular structures

    • Program Research
    • Sub-program Matter-to-Life
    • Investigator Gregory Alushin

    Unraveling how mechanical forces / physical effects contribute to biological function is an underexplored yet important aspect of understanding living systems. This grant provides continuing support to a trio of early-career researchers at Rockefeller University for a series of experiments geared at understanding how mechanical force impacts two important biological functions: the copying of information stored in DNA (transcription) and the coordinated development of a field of cells into a multicellular functional unit (here, skeletal tissue). The proposed transcription research will study how force impacts the dynamics and fidelity of the primary biomolecular machine responsible for transcription, RNA polymerase (RNAP). Forces will be applied to RNAP either using laser tweezers or via collisions between RNAP and various biomolecules that mimic RNAP collisions in live cells. Fluorescence microscopy will capture RNAP dynamics and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) will reveal how the molecular-scale structure, and therefore the biochemical activity, of RNAP is modified by collisions. The tissue development research will use cryo-EM along with cellular biology methods that stimulate cell contraction -and thus force propagation- to study changes in molecular architecture that are driven by supracellular (beyond a single cell) force transmission.

    To study how mechanical force impacts the fidelity of transcription and coordinates the development of multicellular structures

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