Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

OVERVIEW: The New York City-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funds research and education in science, engineering, technology, mathematics, and economics. Most of its funding is national, but Sloan has a sub-program for science and education in New York City, and another program focused on building bridges between the sciences and the humanities.

IP TAKE: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an iconic funder of scientific research and education, along with science-adjacent professions and disciplines such as engineering and mathematics. Sloan grants tend to catapult careers. Since the program began in 1955, 42 fellows have gone on to win Nobel Prizes in their fields, 16 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, and 63 have won the National Medal of Science — and counting. Sloan is unique for its dual emphasis on the so-called “hard sciences” like astronomy and physics along with an interest in facilitating the public’s understanding of science and technology. The latter includes funding specifically for film, books, radio, and other media programs that “build bridges between the two cultures of science and the humanities and develop a common language so that they can better understand and speak to one another.” Sloan is keen on funding research that might be overlooked by traditional public and private funding sources. In an interview with Inside Philanthropy, Sloan Foundation president Adam Falk said they’re looking for “interstitial spots in the landscape where there’s good or potentially good science that isn’t getting funded, and that’s the sense in which we can be risk capital.” Sloan supports structural equity in the sciences, and it has been vocal about the importance of the public’s engagement with science “in a time when incorrect and even dangerously misleading information spreads at the speed of the internet.”

An accessible funder, the Sloan Foundation includes detailed information about its grant application processes on its website. Many of its programs accept letters of inquiry on a rolling basis. Other programs host intermittent open calls for applications. Interested grantseekers should peruse the interests of the particular grantmaking program. Sloan is a transparent funder, with a detailed grants database available at its website.

PROFILE: Founded in 1934 by General Motors executive Alfred Sloan, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is one of the longest-running private science funders in the United States. This funder’s stated mission is to “support original research and education related to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics. Sloan supports high quality, impartial scientific research; fosters a robust, diverse scientific workforce; strengthens public understanding and engagement with science; and promotes the health of the institutions of scientific endeavor.” Sloan also runs a grantmaking program supporting a range of projects and organizations in New York City. The Sloan Foundation’s current grantmaking programs are Research, Higher Education, Technology, Public Understanding, and New York City.

Grants for Science Research

Scientific research is “at the core” of Sloan’s mission. The foundation makes grants for various scientific areas of inquiry, targeting projects with rigorous methodology and “a high expected return to society.” The foundation also focuses its grants on “original” or early-stage research that is unlikely to receive support from other sources. Giving stems from both the Research and Technology giving areas.

Sloan’s Research program is its largest and supports basic and applied scientific research in areas including but not limited to biology, physics, chemistry and astronomy.
- The research program’s newest subprogram, Matter-to-Life, is concerned with the principles of life and conditions that support “the complexification of matter towards life.” Grants have supported studies of prebiotic chemistry, macromolecular biology and biomolecular science at places like Syracuse, McGill and Johns Hopkins Universities.
- An older program, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, facilitates research in astronomy via the Astrophysical Research Consortium, which operates the Sloan Foundation Telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. According to the foundation’s website, the project is “one of the largest, most detailed, and most often cited astronomical surveys that has ever existed” and boasts international partners including the National Science Foundation and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
- Small-Scale Fundamental Physics supports two signature programs that pursue discoveries in “new fundamental physics.”
  - The eEDM Initiative seeks “evidence of new fundamental particles” via measurements of “the electron’s electric dipole moment.”
  - The Four Foundations Collaboration is a collaboration among four major science funders to support “small-scale experiments at the frontiers of physics.”
- Adjacent to its scientific research, Sloan supports research on the History of Science and Technology. These grants typically support the work of individual science historians for research in areas of interest to the foundation.

The Sloan Foundation also supports scientific research via its Technology program, which focuses on computing, digital technology and data science.
- The Open Source in Science subprogram supports efforts to “adapt and extend best practices in open source into academic technology development.” Instead of funding software development directly, however, grants tend to involve “tooling, institutions, economic models, and incentives around the production, maintenance, and adoption of research software.” Grantees include the University of California at Berkeley, the Hack Foundation and St. Louis University, all of which received grants for open source development programs.
- A subprogram for Exploratory Grantmaking in Technology works to identify “areas at the intersection of research and technology where a strategic investment […] might be leveraged to empower scholarship.” Current areas of specific interest include open hardware, algorithmic knowledge and virtual collaborations. Grantees include the Dynamicland Foundation, the Santa Fe Institute and the Open Source Initiative.
- A third subprogram for Scientific Collaboration works to “develop technological tools and practices that help teams and communities of researchers be more creative and productive.” This program’s areas of focus include the future of scientific conferences and workshops, group dynamics in science, and Human-AI collaboration, lenses through which the program seeks to understand how “technology can enable or inhibit rich interactions at different scales across distance, time zones, and languages.”

Grants for STEM Higher Education and Indigenous Equity

The Sloan Foundation’s Higher Education program aims to “create diverse, equitable, and inclusive pathways to and through STEM graduate education and the professoriate.” Strategic priorities include removing systemic barriers to STEM graduate programs, promoting equitable outcomes in graduate education, developing cultures of equity and opportunity in academic departments, and collaborating with organizations and agencies toward equitable change in STEM education. Sloan currently runs four higher education sub-initiatives:

The University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring Program provides funding to eight leading universities for a collaborative program to “support university-based efforts that seek to advance systemic change in STEM graduate education.” Participating universities include Cornell, Duke, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Penn State, the University of California at San Diego and the University of South Florida.
Sloan’s Indigenous Graduate Partnership partners with universities to “support the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives and community engagement in STEM graduate education.” Funding has supported the creation of “regional centers” that offer mentoring, professional development and fellowships, scholarships and financial support to Indigenous students. Partner universities include the University of Alaska campuses at Anchorage and Fairbanks, the University of Arizona, the University of Montana, Montana State University, Montana Tech, the University of North Carolina Asheville and Purdue University.
The Creating Exemplary Pathways to STEM Graduate Education program provides grants to minority serving institutions to create pathways from undergraduate to graduate programs in astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, data science, earth sciences, economics, engineering, marine science, mathematics, physics and statistics. Grantees include Howard University, Eckerd College and the University of Southern California. Check the program page for current RFPs.
The Sloan Centers for Systemic Change works to “catalyze and deepen systemic change activities in STEM doctoral programs nationwide to close persistent equity gaps and see all students thrive.” This program awarded seed grants to ten institutions in 2023, which will be followed by implementation grants in the coming years. Participants include the University of California Berkeley, the Ohio State University, the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Wisconsin Madison. See the program page for a full list of participating schools and program updates.
In addition to its work with university consortia, the Sloan Foundation supports individual scholars through the Sloan Research Fellowships, which are awarded annually to “early career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise” in the fields of “chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, or a related field.” The foundation runs an open application program for these fellowships, but candidates must be nominated by their institutions. Consult the program page for updates and guidelines.

Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy

Climate grantmaking stems from Sloan’s Research area’s subprogram for Energy and Environment. Grants support research to “inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States.” Topics of interest include:

Original research science, technology, engineering, economics and social sciences;
Training for “the next generation of scholars and practitioners” to lead decarbonization efforts;
Multidisciplinary networks of researchers and learners to enhance the effectiveness of the field; and
The broad sharing and dissemination of information and research to inform decision-making.
One grantee, Resources for the Future, received funding for its evaluation of federal clean energy funding programs. Other grants have supported research at Yale University, the University of California Irvine, the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Michigan, among others.

Grants for Economic Development

Sloan’s Research program also earmarks funding for research in the field of Economics with the overarching goal of improving “inclusive prosperity” and “the quality of life in the United States.” The program names the following priorities:

Research on global competitiveness and industrial strategy that focuses on quantum computing, artificial intelligence and the production of microprocessor chips;
Research addressing mesoeconomics and regional economic development especially in regions of the U.S. that have not experienced a “tech boom”;
Research on effective procurement, management and regulation for the development of public works, transportation, and social capital;
Research aimed at Re-Engineering Social Research Surveys for transparency and effective decision-making;
Research on the economics of the Caregiving sector;
Analysis of the roles of Science and Technology as accelerants of economic progress; and
Efforts to strengthen and diversify the Economics Profession.

Sloan funded a large project by the PERI Support Fund to improve access to and accuracy of data on the caregiving sector of the economy. Other grants have supported research at Columbia University, the University of Kansas Center for Research and the National Bureau of Economic Research, which received funding for research on “regional disparities in innovation and new business formation.”

Grants for Journalism and the Humanities

In addition to funding research aimed at scientific discovery and progress, the Sloan Foundation maintains a strong commitment to Public Understanding of Science and Technology. This program aims to “build bridges between the two cultures of science and the humanities and to develop a common language so that they can better understand and speak to one another.” The foundation’s grantmaking strategy for this work includes book, film radio, television and theater projects, as well as funding for new media, which have included smartphone apps, games and other technology-based programs.

Its Special Initiatives subprogram further pursues these themes through the potential grantmaking areas of “privacy and security issues in the digital age; science as a transnational community linked by shared values; strengthening public access to information and protecting it from misinformation; and moral, legal, and privacy issues raised by recent developments in neurotechnology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.”

Grants have supported projects and programs including the Radiolab broadcast program, an award program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, the ChemCrafter chemistry app, and many theatrical and film productions and book publications.

Grants for New York City

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’ New York City funding program includes the following programs:

The Sloan Public Service Awards honor six exceptional civil servants each year.
The Sloan Awards for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics annually recognize seven teachers who “inspire youth to excel in science and mathematics and pursue careers in related fields.”
The NY STEM Education Network runs events and learning opportunities for “all learners of all ages in New York City.”
2030 STEM is an accelerator for BIPOC-led, inclusive STEM projects in the New York area.
FloodNet is a collaborative platform of government, academic and private stakeholders that works to better understand flooding and flood risk in the the metropolitan area.
The Network Initiative for Conservation Science advances research in art history and conservation sciences at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Staff Grantmaking Initiative provides funding to New York City nonprofits working in the areas of science or technology based on the interests and concerns of the foundation’s non-grantmaking employees.
BetaNYC is a platform for “improving lives in New York” via technology and information access.
Sloan funds the Council for Economic Education’s Visionary Awards to honor “extraordinary leaders who promote economic and financial literacy.”
For additional information about participation in any of these programs, see individual program pages.

Important Grant Details:

In recent years the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s grants range widely from $10,000 to several million. The majority of grants fall in the $50,000 to $500,000 range.

Scientific research and education are the foundation’s largest giving areas, but opportunities also exist in economics and social science research topics, as well as technology and digital development. Arts and culture programs that relate to public understanding of science and technology in the contemporary world also receive funding.
The foundation accepts two-page letters of inquiry for several of its programs. Full proposals are accepted by invitation only. LOI guidelines are available here.
The foundation occasionally posts RFPs here.
Questions about the grantmaking process may be sent to the foundation via email at grantsadmin@sloan.org. The foundation’s phone number is (212) 649-1649.

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