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: SFFILM
    amount: $467,500
    city: San Francisco, CA
    year: 2019

    To nurture, develop, and champion films that explore scientific or technological themes and characters

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Elizabeth O'Malley

    This grant supports a series of activities by SFFILM, the organization that hosts the annual San Francisco Film Festival, to nurture, develop, and champion films that explore scientific or technological themes and characters. Supported activities include the awarding of two $35,000 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowships each year to promising feature film or episodic screenwriters who are exploring scientific or technological themes in their work. SFFILM also gives an annual award, the Sloan Science in Cinema Prize, to the best science-themed feature film submitted to the San Francisco Film Festival and promotes the winning film at the festival with a ceremony, screening, post-screening panel, and reception. SFFILM also compiles a yearly Sloan Stories of Science Sourcebook, which includes the best science stories and the most up-to-date scientific discoveries of the year and offers awards to two filmmakers who can develop original scripts based on these stories or ideas. Lastly, SFFILM partners with the Black List to identify promising science-themed scripts and bring them to the attention of developers, producers, and other film industry executives. Grant funds support these activities and associated operational costs for the next two years.

    To nurture, develop, and champion films that explore scientific or technological themes and characters

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  • grantee: Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation
    amount: $763,700
    city: Brookline, MA
    year: 2019

    To sustain and expand the national Science on Screen program to all 50 states, with a focus on extending its reach to in-person audiences

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

    This grant provides two years of continued support for the Coolidge Corner Theatre Science on Screen series, a grant program that helps independent theaters across the country pair current, classic, cult, and documentary film screenings with thoughtful introductions by notable figures from the fields of science, technology, and medicine. Grant funds will allow Coolidge to make 56 grants to independent theaters over the next two years, which will bring to over 100 the number of independent cinema houses across the country that participate in the program. Each theater in the Science on Screen series receives a grant of between $4,000 and $8,500 to facilitate three screenings a year with expert STEM speakers, at least one of which is a film developed or awarded a prize through the Sloan FoundationХs Film program. Additional grant funds support a National Week of Science on Screen in which all participating theaters hold coordinated screenings, an expanded two-year grant program for cinemas participating for the first time, and an alumni program that provides support at a reduced level for the programХs most committed cinemas. Other funds support marketing, promotion, and social media outreach designed to expand participation to theaters in all 50 U.S. states, and an ongoing presence at Arthouse Convergence, the largest annual gathering of independent cinema operators in the country.

    To sustain and expand the national Science on Screen program to all 50 states, with a focus on extending its reach to in-person audiences

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  • grantee: Women Make Movies, Inc.
    amount: $200,000
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To support a feature documentary about the bias encoded in automated decision-making and machine-learning algorithms based on the work of Joy Buolamwini

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Debra Zimmerman

    To support a feature documentary about the bias encoded in automated decision-making and machine-learning algorithms based on the work of Joy Buolamwini

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  • grantee: New York University
    amount: $432,364
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To support screenwriting and production of science and technology films and games by top film and game design students

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Michael Burke

    This grant continues support to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for a series of initiatives that encourages student filmmakers and game designers to develop screenplays, short films, and games that feature science or technology. Grant funds support an annual colloquium that brings students together with working scientists, a yearly $30,000 production award that helps a promising science-themed film project move toward completion, three $10,000 screenplay awards given to help develop science themed scripts, and an annual Game Center award to develop an interactive game that creatively integrates gameplay with science and technology. Additional funds provide stipends for working scientists to judge student submissions on their scientific content and to serve as dedicated science advisors and mentors on student projects. Grant funds support these and related administrative and outreach activities for three years.

    To support screenwriting and production of science and technology films and games by top film and game design students

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  • grantee: Columbia University
    amount: $351,393
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To encourage the next generation of filmmakers to write screenplays and produce short films about science and technology through enhanced research, mentorship, and award opportunities

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Trey Ellis

    Funds from this grant provide support to a program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts to incentivize and encourage graduate students to write screenplays and produce short films about science and technology. Supported activities include three annual $10,000 awards given to the best student screenplay with a scientific or technological theme; two annual $21,000 production awards to help produce a science-themed film project; an annual information session and scientific panel that introduces students to cutting edge scientific research, and an intensive competitive mentorship program in which students meet regularly under the supervision of a scientific advisor as they jointly develop science-themed scripts or film projects. Grant funds support these and related administrative costs for three years.

    To encourage the next generation of filmmakers to write screenplays and produce short films about science and technology through enhanced research, mentorship, and award opportunities

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  • grantee: SFFILM
    amount: $250,000
    city: San Francisco, CA
    year: 2019

    To provide completion funding for a feature-length film about the life and scientific contributions of Nikola Tesla

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Elizabeth O'Malley

    To provide completion funding for a feature-length film about the life and scientific contributions of Nikola Tesla

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  • grantee: Women Make Movies, Inc.
    amount: $95,700
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To support the production of a feature-length documentary on neurologist Phil Kennedy, a pioneer in brain-computer interfacing, and how technology is affecting our brains

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Barbara Ghammashi

    To support the production of a feature-length documentary on neurologist Phil Kennedy, a pioneer in brain-computer interfacing, and how technology is affecting our brains

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  • grantee: Jacob Burns Film Center, Inc.
    amount: $74,678
    city: Pleasantville, NY
    year: 2018

    To produce a feature-length documentary on the Blue Brain Project to build a full-scale, self-aware simulation of the human brain

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Noah Hutton

    To produce a feature-length documentary on the Blue Brain Project to build a full-scale, self-aware simulation of the human brain

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  • grantee: American Museum of the Moving Image
    amount: $440,000
    city: Astoria, NY
    year: 2018

    To maintain the comprehensive, up-to-date, go-to site for the nationwide Sloan Film program, its partners, and 600+ film projects and to develop related outreach, events, and educational materials for students, teachers, and the general public

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

    This grant provides three years of support to the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) to maintain and expand its Sloan Science & Film website, the most up-to-date, comprehensive resource for the Foundation’s Film program. In addition to cataloging over 600 past, present, and upcoming film projects by Sloan supported filmmakers, the site, along with its various social media channels, serves as an education, information, and engagement platform for the growing science in film community. Supported activities include updating the Sloan film catalog, live streaming six public events promoting science in film, producing four articles per week for publication on the site, and hiring a digital engagement strategist to maximize engagement across the site’s various social media channels.

    To maintain the comprehensive, up-to-date, go-to site for the nationwide Sloan Film program, its partners, and 600+ film projects and to develop related outreach, events, and educational materials for students, teachers, and the general public

    More
  • grantee: Carnegie Mellon University
    amount: $321,615
    city: Pittsburgh, PA
    year: 2018

    To support the development and production of science and technology films, television, and new media projects by top film students

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Robert Handel

    This grant continues support for a program at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama (CMU) that exposes top dramatic writing students to science and technology and awards prizes to student screenwriters who write science- or technology-themed scripts. The CMU program includes a fall symposium that brings scientists to the drama school to introduce students to recent developments in a variety of scientific disciplines; a year-long screenwriting workshop that meets weekly and focuses on the challenges and opportunities posed by incorporating science into dramatic or comedic narratives, a mentorship program that pairs film students with working scientists to help them depict science accurately in their work, an annual screenwriting competition that awards $17,500 to the two best science-themed scripts submitted, and a yearly showcase in Los Angeles and New York to bring student filmmakers into contact with leading producers, directors, and distributors in the film and television industry. Grant funds provide core support for these activities for another three years.

    To support the development and production of science and technology films, television, and new media projects by top film students

    More
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