EconoFact (https://econofact.org) is a website that specializes in disseminating non-partisan and rigorous analysis from leading economists. Their work is edited in the form of short memos and podcasts that are accessible and digestible to a broad audience. Michael Klein, the leader of this effort, has assembled a network of more than 100 prominent economists who regularly contribute to EconoFact. Topics covered include employment, the costs of pollution, debts and deficits, household finance, and Medicaid reform, among others. Since its 2018 launch, the site has garnered almost 1.9 million pageviews and its work has been mentioned in major news outlets, including the PBS Newshour, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Financial Times, and NPR’s “All Things Considered”. By 2020, EconoFact had become an important source for analysis of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing more than 50 memos and 18 podcasts on the topic. Funds from this grant provide support for the continued operation and expansion of EconoFact, including the production of 150 new memos, 100 podcasts, and 36 video pieces, providing accessible, expert economic analysis on topics relevant to policymakers and the public alike.

Over the last two decades, Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) has been highly influential in helping women from diverse backgrounds succeed as Ph.D. students in mathematics. EDGE’s success was nationally recognized in 2018, when it received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This grant supports Ami Radunskaya, professor of mathematics at Pomona College and the current chair of the EDGE Board, in her efforts to increase diversity in advanced mathematics education. Grant funds will help finance the next three EDGE Summer Programs (2022-2024). These four-week summer events are meant to help prepare women entering mathematics Ph.D. programs by teaching critical content, developing necessary graduate school skills, establishing mentoring channels, and growing a community of supportive mathematicians. Participants will attend intensive technical workshops, problem solving sessions, presentations, seminars, and annual summer symposiums to build their networks. Grant funds will also help to produce the EDGE Notes Book, an open collection of notes, problems, and solutions for those unable to attend.

Many policies, like cigarette and alcohol taxes, are partly motivated by concerns that people can fail to act in their own best interests. Behavioral public economics (BPE) is a field that seeks to apply insights from behavioral economics to understand and evaluate such policies—with the ultimate goal of creating better policies. Despite its potential for improving policies, and lives, BPE remains a relatively niche and undersubscribed field at universities. This grant supports a team of BPE scholars working to change that. Douglas Bernheim at Stanford University, together with Hunt Allcott at Harvard University and Dmitry Taubinsky at the University of California, Berkeley, are launching a bootcamp to help grow the BPE research community. Grant funds will allow the team to run biennial two-day bootcamps at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s offices, which will include training sessions, keynote lectures, and networking opportunities for early-career scholars. To ensure educational offerings reach the widest possible audience, the effort includes focused outreach to women and underrepresented groups as well as the online posting of recorded sessions, expanding access to those unable to participate in person.

The core of the Sloan Energy and Environment program is to advance our understanding of how best to transition U.S. energy systems from fossil fuel power generation to alternative sources that produce net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide. Beyond understanding alternative routes toward decarbonization—zero-carbon energy sources, improved transmission infrastructure, and reduced energy use—we also need to understand how the costs and benefits of each of these pathways will be distributed across different populations, especially those that have been historically marginalized or underrepresented, such as Black, Hispanic, or Native American communities. This grant supports the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in launching a study focusing on how to accelerate the transition to low carbon energy systems across the United States. Drawing on a committee of 20-30 independent researchers with broad expertise across multiple facets of the energy system, the study will explore how the U.S. can accelerate climate mitigation, facilitate energy system transitions, and promote adaptation strategies that take seriously how costs are distributed, with particular attention to marginalized and vulnerable populations. Grant funds will support information gathering in the form of outreach, interviews, and listening sessions with stakeholders from relevant communities; the production of two reports, one identifying equitable emissions-lowering policies by sector and another focused on similar cross-sector policies; and dissemination efforts for both reports designed to ensure these outputs reach key stakeholders in academia, government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.