-
Census of Marine Life
This major international observational program, concluded in 2010, aimed to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life.
-
Encyclopedia of Life
From 2007 to 2012, the Foundation made grants to build a reliable online encyclopedia with a Web page for each of the named 1.8 million species of plants, animals, and fungi.
-
Industry Studies
The Industry Studies program, launched in 1990 and completed in 2010, aimed to promote high quality scholarship about particular industries through encouraging close interaction between academics and industry practitioners.
-
History of Science & Technology
To advance our understanding of the historical context of scientific research and inform current and future research, policy, and institutional practices.
-
Professional Science Master's Degree
Launched in 1997 and completed in 2010, this program aimed to create and promote a new two-year degree designed to prepare students for scientific and technical work in the private sector.
-
Radio
Support original high-quality programming on a range of radio programs that tackle science, technology, and economics to increase both the quantity and quality of coverage for the general public.
-
Special Initiatives
To support high-return projects that strengthen the scientific and technological enterprise as a social good.
-
Barcode of Life
Completed
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Micah Baldwin (CC BY-SA 2.0)
This program, started in 2002 and completed in 2010, aimed to speed the building and use of a library of short DNA sequences (barcodes) to identify animal and plant species reliably and inexpensively.
History
In a series of two dozen grants totaling more than $11.5 million, the Foundation supported a diverse range of activities to foster t…
-
Economics
To provide public goods, including fundamental research, conceptual breakthroughs, and technical advances, that inclusively strengthen and accelerate U.S. economic progress.
-
Universal Access to Knowledge
To harness advances in digital information technology to facilitate the openness and accessibility of all knowledge in the digital age for the widest public benefit under fair and secure conditions.
-
Synthetic Biology
Established in 2005, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Synthetic Biology program is credited with laying the groundwork for a robust examination of, and a sustainable approach to, a rapidly advancing field with transformative potential for both science and industry.
-
Energy & Environment
To inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues.
-
Working Longer
To expand and deepen scholarly, policy, and public understanding of older Americans' labor market activities and to identify ways in which institutional adjustments may facilitate employment of those who need or want to work beyond conventional retirement ages.
-
Film
To influence the next generation of filmmakers to tackle science and technology themes and characters, increase visibility for feature films that depict this subject matter, and develop new work that can be produced and released theatrically.
-
Outsourcing: Impacts on the U.S. Workforce
To support impartial, high-quality research that advances scholarly, policy, and public understanding of the prevalence of outsourcing across the U.S. economy and how that outsourcing affects American workers.
-
Anytime, Anyplace Learning
Completed
Photo courtesy of Flickr user kev-shine (CC BY 2.0)
Starting in 1992 and ending in 2009, the Foundation made grants totaling nearly $75 million in support of the development of Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs). These networks provided remote access to high-quality higher education and training—anytime and anyplace—by providing access to instructors, classmates, syllabi, readings, and other educational resources via the I…
-
Data & Computational Research
To accelerate scientific discovery by helping researchers fully exploit the opportunities created by recent advances in our ability to collect, transmit, analyze, store, and manipulate data.
-
Scholarly Communication
To empower researchers by supporting the development and adoption of new resources for managing the increasingly diverse array of digital communication channels, enabling scientists to more effectively locate relevant research, network with other researchers, and disseminate their work to the scientific community and the public.
-
Microbiology of the Built Environment
To grow a new multidisciplinary field of scientific inquiry focused on understanding the microbial ecology of the built environments where people work, live, and play.
-
Chemistry of Indoor Environments
To grow a new field of scientific inquiry focused on understanding the fundamental chemistry taking place in indoor environments and how that chemistry is shaped by building attributes and human occupancy.