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: American Museum of the Moving Image
    amount: $132,820
    city: Astoria, NY
    year: 2021

    To support the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize for the annual selection and development of the best-of-the-best screenplay from Sloan’s six film school partners and Sloan Discovery Award selected from six non-Sloan film school screenplays with S&T themes

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Sonia Epstein

    To support the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize for the annual selection and development of the best-of-the-best screenplay from Sloan’s six film school partners and Sloan Discovery Award selected from six non-Sloan film school screenplays with S&T themes

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  • grantee: American Museum of the Moving Image
    amount: $60,000
    city: Astoria, NY
    year: 2021

    To support a public health-focused film series at the Queens Drive-In showcasing Sloan-supported documentaries and popular feature films introduced by scientists

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Sonia Epstein

    To support a public health-focused film series at the Queens Drive-In showcasing Sloan-supported documentaries and popular feature films introduced by scientists

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  • grantee: Film Independent, Inc.
    amount: $417,890
    city: Los Angeles, CA
    year: 2020

    To support the triennial Sloan Film Summit, a three-day event of screenings, panels, staged readings, project updates, networking opportunities, and community building for Sloan film grantees

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Josh Welsh

    This grant provides funding to Film Independent (FIND) to organize, publicize and host the next Sloan Film Summit, a major convening of all grantees in the Foundation’s Film program, held every three years pre-COVID. FIND will continue to include public-facing events that go beyond the Sloan attendees. FIND’s own membership has grown by 25% since the last summit and includes over 7,500 filmmakers, who will be among the target audience. The three-day summit, which will feature some 150 attendees, offers a rare opportunity for mingling and interacting among students, faculty, and administrators from the six long-established Sloan film schools; filmmakers and leaders from the five Sloan screenplay development and film festival partners; and the Museum of the Moving Image, Coolidge Corner Theatre, and the Science and Entertainment Exchange. The 2021 Summit will also include representatives from new entrants to the Sloan Film program, including the six new film schools in the Discovery Awards program and the Athena Film Festival and North Fork TV Festival. Planned activities at the festival include an opening night film screening and dinner, updates on Sloan award recipients, case studies of successful filmmaker-scientists collaborations, a networking lunch that connects filmmakers with scientists, staged screenplay readings, a panel where leading scientists discuss underappreciated scientific discoveries, and an industry connection event that will allow 100 filmmakers to meet one-on-one with agents, casting directors, distributors, and other industry executives.

    To support the triennial Sloan Film Summit, a three-day event of screenings, panels, staged readings, project updates, networking opportunities, and community building for Sloan film grantees

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  • grantee: New York University
    amount: $485,156
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2020

    For an annual feature film production grant over three years to enable film students to shoot a first feature film about science and technology

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

    This grant funds an innovative awards program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) that aims to promote the production of a science- or technology-themed full length feature film by students at the nation’s premier film school. The process begins with NYU film student submissions of one-page pitches of science films they propose to make. A dozen quarter-finalists are selected to move forward, and write step-by-step breakdowns of their films. Six semifinalists are then chosen and given a month to meet with scientists and film faculty to improve the science content, narrative, and design of their films before submitting revised treatments. Three winners are then selected and each is awarded $5,000 to develop their treatments into full-scale feature screenplays. Once screenplays are submitted, one winner is selected, who receives a $100,000 production award to make their first feature film. Grant funds support the continuation of this awards program for the next three years.

    For an annual feature film production grant over three years to enable film students to shoot a first feature film about science and technology

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  • grantee: Film Independent, Inc.
    amount: $663,042
    city: Los Angeles, CA
    year: 2020

    To provide direct support to develop and distribute science and technology scripts, teleplays, and films

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Lisa Hasko

    This grant funds an awards program by Film Independent (FIND), producer of the Independent Spirit Awards, that aims to help produce and distribute feature films with scientific or technological themes, or those that feature scientists, engineers, technologists, inventors, or mathematicians as major characters.   FIND makes several grants a year to achieve its aims: one producer a year selected to develop a science-themed script in FIND’s Producing Lab, with a $30,000 Producer’s grant and a reception and promotion around this project; one producer or producing team a year awarded a Sloan Fast Track Fellowship, which is a $20,000 cash grant and invitation to the Fast Track film financing market; one outstanding episodic television writer a year supported with a $15,000 grant to develop science-themed series in FIND’s new Episodic Lab; and an average of one exceptional science-themed film every 18 months for a total of two distribution grants of $50,000 each to incentivize buyers to acquire an eligible film for distribution. To date, FIND’s program has been a success. Every project supported has either been completed and released theatrically, is currently in preproduction, or remains at the script development stage. In addition, the program has an admirable record of promoting diverse voices, with women and people of color representing over 60% of their filmmakers.

    To provide direct support to develop and distribute science and technology scripts, teleplays, and films

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  • grantee: National Academy of Sciences
    amount: $499,995
    city: Washington, DC
    year: 2020

    To sustain the Science and Entertainment Exchange and the role of science and science consultants in Hollywood and to provide programming and science advisors for the Sloan Film Program

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Ann Merchant

    Launched by the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 with Sloan support, the Science and Entertainment Exchange (the Exchange), is an ongoing program to increase the quality of scientific content in American film through providing directors, producers, and other Hollywood film executives with access to high quality consulting by real working scientists and researchers. Providing more than 250 consultations a year, the Exchange works to ensure accuracy when science is used in film and television, seeds new ideas within Hollywood by exposing creative and industry professionals to new scientific content, and acts as a well of professional advice across a wide range of scientific topics. This grant provides support for the Exchange for a period of three years, including funds to support science consultations, help expand and diversify the Exchange’s roster of more than 3,000 science consultants, create up to six videos targeting an online audience, and launch a new monthly series of online events designed to highlight successful industry-scientist partnerships fostered by the program.  

    To sustain the Science and Entertainment Exchange and the role of science and science consultants in Hollywood and to provide programming and science advisors for the Sloan Film Program

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  • grantee: Documentary Educational Resources
    amount: $500,000
    city: Watertown, MA
    year: 2020

    To support a feature-length documentary on the pivotal work of social scientist and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Alice Apley

    A professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Robert Putnam became famous in 2000 when he published the bestseller Bowling Alone, a prescient analysis of the fraying of civic life in America. In that work, Putnam vividly documented the unraveling of the clubs, groups, leagues, and other community organizations that had previously bound Americans together, leading to social isolation, malaise, and a collapse of civic engagement and trust in American institutions. Since then, he has published important work on the religious roots of the culture wars and the decrease of social interactions among different socioeconomic classes.  Funds from this grant support the production of Unraveling America: A Social Science Detective Story with Robert Putnam, a documentary film about Putnam and his work, to be directed jointly by filmmakers Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis, a former student of Putnam’s.

    To support a feature-length documentary on the pivotal work of social scientist and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam

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  • grantee: Women Make Movies, Inc.
    amount: $249,929
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To support the production of ТThe Eyes to See,У a documentary film about bias and discrimination against women in science

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

    To support the production of ТThe Eyes to See,У a documentary film about bias and discrimination against women in science

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  • grantee: Tribeca Film Institute
    amount: $878,500
    city: New York, NY
    year: 2019

    To build on the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund's success in developing new science films to production and to raise the profile of Sloan screenings, readings, and panels at the Tribeca Film Festival

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Bryce Norbitz

    Funds from this grant continue a partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) to promote the development and release of science-themed films and support filmmakers who explore scientific or technological themes in their work. Each year, the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund issues an open call for new and established filmmakers to submit science-themed film treatments, finished screenplays, or works-in-progress. After a rigorous independent review process, two to six projects are selected each year for support. Winning projects receive between $10,000 and $75,000 to help usher the project toward completion. In addition, winners receive year-round support from TFI, including mentorship, workshops, readings, inclusion in the annual TFI Network market, a professionally produced ТsizzleУ reel to bolster promotion and engagement with funded projects, and arranged industry meetings. TFI also hosts a highly publicized and well-attended screening and panel discussion of a science-themed film at the Tribeca Film Festival each year along with an associated reception. Last, TFI operates an Alumni Discretionary Fund that provides microgrants of up to $5,000 to previously supported projects, providing a critical intervention that helps ensure supported projects are continuing to move toward production and release. This grant supports these and related activities for a period of two years.

    To build on the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund's success in developing new science films to production and to raise the profile of Sloan screenings, readings, and panels at the Tribeca Film Festival

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  • grantee: Sundance Institute
    amount: $500,000
    city: Los Angeles, CA
    year: 2019

    To support a science and technology film program at the nation's pre-eminent independent film center that includes screenwriting fellowships, feature film prizes, science and film panels, and associated outreach

    • Program Public Understanding
    • Sub-program Film
    • Investigator Michelle Satter

    This grant continues a Sloan partnership with the Sundance Film Institute for a series of initiatives that promote the development, production, and distribution of science-themed films. Annual initiatives include the Sloan Commissioning Fellowship, which is awarded to a screenwriter or producer to support the development of an early-stage science-themed project. The award includes a $25,000 cash grant, a stipend for a science advisor and research, mentorship, and year-round staff support from Sundance. The Sloan Development Fellowship in the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program supports the participation of a filmmaker and his or her science-themed script in the Screenwriters Lab, Screenwriters Intensive, or Creative Producing Summit. Winners participate in the Feature Film Fellows track at the Sundance Film Festival and are eligible for additional Feature Film Program labs. The fellowship also includes a $15,000 cash grant to support the development of the project, including funds for scientific mentoring and advice. The Sloan Episodic Story Fellowship supports a writer with an early-stage, science-themed episodic project developed for television, streaming, or other platforms. It includes a $10,000 cash grant to support the development of the project, a stipend for a science advisor, and mentorship and other support from Sundance staff. The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize is awarded by a jury of esteemed filmmakers and scientists to the writer and director of an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character. The award is presented at a reception at the annual Sundance Film Festival and comes with a $20,000 cash prize. Last, the Science-in-Film Forum is a moderated panel discussion, open to all Sundance participants, featuring independent filmmakers and leading scientists and technologists who discuss compelling topics relevant to the depiction of science and technology in film and television. Grant funds support these initiatives and additional outreach, publicity, and administrative costs for a period of two years.

    To support a science and technology film program at the nation's pre-eminent independent film center that includes screenwriting fellowships, feature film prizes, science and film panels, and associated outreach

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