The goal of this program is to help build a reliable online encyclopedia with a Web page for each of the named 1.8 million species of plants, animals, and fungi. A $2.5 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation along with a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation initiated the project in 2007. Over 30,000 pages of the Encyclopedia were released early in 2008 and the site has since grown to include more than 200,000 authenticated species-pages. Content is being generated via the Biodiversity Heritage Library (a consortium of ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions), other Web-based resources, and by professional and citizen scientists. Wikipedia-style, people worldwide are invited to contribute text, video, images, and other information about a species and have it incorporated, upon review, into the authenticated pages. A 2009 three-year grant supports the EOL’s efforts to expand its worldwide institutional base of participants and its movement toward achieving self-sufficiency by 2012 when Foundation support will end. Program Director: Gail M. Pesyna Bio Visit the EOL Apply Spotlight Listen to the EOL podcast, One Species at a Time , hosted by Ari Daniel Shapiro. more Links Partners Sign up for the EOL Newsletter Read the 2010 EOL Online Brochure
This program, started in 2002, aims to speed the building and use of a library of short DNA sequences (barcodes) to identify animal and plant species reliably and inexpensively. Foundation grantmaking has supported the selection of gene regions for use in identification and the networking of stakeholder institutions in the field, which include museums and herbaria that have collections of specimens, laboratories that perform analyses, and regulatory agencies concerned, for example, about the accuracy of food labeling. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life, based at the Smithsonian Institution, includes over 170 member organizations from 50 countries. Barcodes of over 850,000 specimens from over 70,000 species have been accumulated with plans to extend the barcode library to 500,000 species over the next five years. Grantmaking for 2010 will focus on supporting the Consortium as it shifts to financial reliance on government agencies concerned both with basic science and with consumer and environmental protection. Program Director: Gail M. Pesyna Bio Visit the BoL Apply Headlines Can DNA Barcoding Really Save Endangered Fish? Canadian Technology Fights Misleading Food Labelling World Center for DNA Barcoding, Biodiversity Genomics Opens in Guelph Guelph Now University of Guelph Opens Second Facility for Barcode of Life Guelph Mercury Links Read the Barcode of Life Newsletter Visit the NYC Urban Barcode Project
The goal of this program is to advance a major international observational program to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life. Beginning in 2000, Foundation grants now total about $78 million. Together with more than $550 million from non-Sloan sources around the world, including national governments, international organizations, and maritime industries, Foundation funds have helped fund 14 field projects, build the History of Marine Animal Populations to benchmark current populations, create a network to predict the future of marine animal populations, develop the Ocean Biogeographical Information System (now containing over 22 million records of more than 112,000 marine species), and support the International Scientific Steering Committee and Secretariat, the U.S. National Committee, and an Education and Outreach Network to lift the project’s visibility and engage other nations and organizations and to develop the capacity for further discovery and application of accumulated knowledge once the Census is completed. Thousands of scientists from more than 80 nations are participating. Foundation support will culminate with the release of the first ever Census of Marine Life in October, 2010. Program Director: Gail M. Pesyna Bio Grants Visit the Census Apply Spotlight Read the highlights report of the first Census of Marine Life more Links Ocean Biogeographical Information System National Geographic Map of CoML Findings Watch Videos of the Census Events in London
Sloan Spotlight The Foundation is proud to announce that it will partner with Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Pennsylvania State University to create three University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring. These new centers aim to expand and strengthen the recruitment, educational support, and professional development of underrepresented minority graduate students in STEM disciplines. more... About the Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grantmaking institution based in New York City. Established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation, the Foundation makes grants in support of original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economic performance. more... Headlines Sloan Foundation Partners with Three Universities to Create University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring Three Men, Three Ages. Which Do You Like? New York Times SDSS Receives $350K from Eccles Foundation Salt Lake Tribune University of Utah Signs on to Newest Phase of International Galaxy-Mapping Project The Republic The Hidden Organic Carbon in Deep Mineral Soils Effective Workplace Flexibility Looks at Entire Work Life, Not Just Child-Bearing Years Kathleen Christensen New The Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2014 Sloan Research Fellowships. Completed nominations are due no later than Monday, September 16, 2013. Visit our online application page to learn more about the nomination process.