The goal of Sloan’s Synthetic Biology initiative is to identify the risks associated with research in and applications of synthetic biology and to assess the ethical, regulatory, and public policy implications of these risks. Grantmaking aims to educate scientists, policy makers, journalists and the public about synthetic biology, improve biosecurity and biosafety within the field, lay groundwork to address issues in regulation and governance, and help develop a cadre of scholars and practitioners to evaluate the ethical, social, and public policy consequences of synthetic biology research. Recent grantmaking in this program has focused on informing key audiences about synthetic biology. A grant to The Hastings Center aims to engage the ethical community to identify and articulate ethical issues associated with synthetic biology research and provide a basis for informed policy discussion. A Sloan-funded project at the J. Craig Venter Institute is educating the scientific community about societal concerns regarding synthetic biology and educating the policy and journalism communities about the science underlying synthetic biology research. A grant to the Woodrow Wilson International Center aims to identify risks associated with synthetic biology, evaluate the adequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms, and educate policy makers and the public through events and through its website, www.synbioproject.org . The Foundation has been working in synthetic biology since 2005. Initial grants included a Foundation-sponsored report by the J. Craig Venter Institute, “ Synthetic Genomics: Options for Governance ”, as well as support for discussion of the societal implications of synthetic biology at the past three international synthetic biology meetings: S.B 2.0 (UC Berkeley) S.B 3.0 (Zurich) and S.B 4.0 (Hong Kong). This program does not support laboratory research in synthetic biology. Program Director: Paula Olsiewski Bio Spotlight Watch bioethicist and Hastings Center President Thomas H. Murray's testimony to the President's Commission on Bioethics more Spotlight Presidential Commission on Bioethics releases report on the ethics of synthetic biology more Headlines How Synthetic Biology Will Change Us NBC News Book Review: "Regenesis" by Church and Regis Kirkus Reviews Genes in Your Email? Why Not? NBC News Links Read the Presidential Commission on Biothethics Report on the Ethics of Synthetic Biology The Synbio Project at the W. Wilson Center Hastings Center Synthetic Biology Page Venter Institute Paper on Governance Option for Synthetic Bio Wilson Center Launches Scorecard to Help Implement Synthetic Bio Recommendation
This new program aims to revolutionize our understanding of the location and behavior of all carbon on Earth. Through an international network of laboratories across a number of scientific disciplines, the Deep Carbon Observatory will look at the role of carbon in numerous processes; including the origin of life on this planet, the chemical composition of the Earth’s core, and the distribution and deposition of fossil fuels. A three-year 2009 grant to the Carnegie Institution of Washington supported the initial phase of the program, which focused on developing instruments to meet the severe technical challenges associated with probing the Earth's deep interior, and on building an organizational infrastructure to set strategic priorities, engage a network of researchers, and secure funding commitments from institutional partners. The project is projected to run until 2019. Visit the Deep Carbon Observatory Web site Headlines Scientists Uncover Link Between Lavas Erupting on Sea Floor and Deep Carbon Cycle RedOrbit Lava Hints at Earth's Deep Carbon Cycle Live Science How Deep Carbon Could Pop Up on Earth's Surface Futurity Microbes Below Earth's Surface Could Be Potential Link to Mars Rover Discovery Public Radio International Computer Models Show How Deep Carbon Could Return to Earth's Surface Science Daily
People average 23 hours a day indoors where we breathe and come in contact with trillions of microorganisms—tiny life forms invisible to the naked eye. Human beings ourselves are composted of ten times as many microbial cells as human cells and we are constantly shedding, acquiring and indeed sharing microbes. Historically environmental research and policy have focused on natural or urban outdoor environments. Little is known about the complex microbial ecosystems found in the built environment. The goal of the Microbiology of the Built Environment program is to grow a new field of scientific inquiry. Over the next five years, Sloan's objectives are as follows: To push the research frontier including the development of standardized techniques and protocols, and to educate a small leadership cohort through a multidisciplinary university-based Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon , led by Jessica Green, Brendan Bohannan, and Charlie Brown. To build a national, multidisciplinary community by establishing a network of scientists, engineers, and architects working on these issues through the Microbiology of the Built Environment Network at the University of California, Davis, led by Jonathan Eisen. To improve the cohesiveness of the community and its ability to communicate internally and externally by developing data visualization and imaging techniques and repositories through a consortium of four institutions: University of Chicago (Folker Meyer), Marine Biological Laboratory(Mitch Sogin), University of Colorado(Rob Knight), and University of California, Riverside(Jason Stajich). To demonstrate the excitement and value of the field by supporting a small number of research targets of opportunity. Read the RFP for the Postdoctoral Fellowship program. To convince traditional U.S. government funding agencies to include research on the built environment in their research plans by developing a compelling, widely accepted research agenda. For a complete list of Sloan grants in this program area, see www.microbe.net/grantees . Program Director: Paula Olsiewski Bio Apply Spotlight These two-year, $120K fellowships support the work of promising postdoctoral researchers and engineers who are studying the microbiology of built environments. Read the RFP. Headlines Your Skin Can Reveal How Much You Love Dogs Counsel & Heal Q&A: Jessica Green, Biodiversity Scientist, on the Microbial Ecosystems in Our Buildings SmartPlanet Mapping the Great Indoors New York Times Next To You On The Subway New York Times Study: Subway Air Is No Worse Than Crowded Street Air CBS New York Links MoBE Journal Articles Biology and the Built Environment Center at the U. of Oregon Microbiomes of the Built Environment Data Analysis Core Microbiology of the Built Environment Network Read the microBEnet blog Visualization and Analysis of Microbial Population Structures (VAMPS)
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
Recently Completed Programs New grant proposals are no longer being accepted in the following grant programs. Anytime, Anyplace Learning Census of Marine Life Industry Studies Information about Careers in Science and Technology Making Municipal Governments More Responsive to their Citizens Professional Science Master's Degree Workplace, Workforce, and Working Families Grantmaking in two additional programs, the Science and Engineering Workforce program and the Federal Statistics program, have been integrated into the Foundation's Economic Institutions, Behavior, and Performance program.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation recognizes that there are select opportunities outside of science, education and economics in which it can create an important benefit to society. Its National Issues program area looks for unique opportunities where Foundation funds promise to advance a significant national interest. Grants in the Select National Issues program are funding work to increase America's biosecurity and investigate how recent advances in information technology affect the spread of knowledge and the structure of scientific endeavor. Program Director: Paula Olsiewski Bio
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation believes that a theory-based, empirically-tested understanding of the U.S. economy is essential to improving the American quality of life. The Foundation funds grants for high-quality original research that promise to broaden that understanding or use it to improve American institutions. Grants in the Economic Performance and Quality of Life program have expanded our knowlege of how particular industries function, encouraged better communication and cooperation between citizens and their local governments, and focused scholarly and public attention on the issues and challenges faced by contemporary working families.
This program seeks to better our understanding of the relationship between technology, information, and society, primarily through research on and the development of digital information technology for the conduct of scholarly research and public engagement with knowledge. Grantmaking in this program focuses on three distinct sub-areas: Data and Computational Research Grants related to how information technology enables new forms of data-intensive research ( Program Director: Joshua Greenberg ) Scholarly Communication Grants related to how information technology may change the dissemination and evaluation of scholarship ( Program Directo r: Joshua Greenberg ) Universal Access to Knowledge Grants related to digitizing knowledge and increasing access to that knowledge ( Program Director : Doron Weber ) Apply Headlines New "Voter Atlas" Shows Where the True Electoral Battlegrounds Are Seven Pilot Sites Join National Digital Library Project with Knight Foundation Funding Webwire Registration Now Open for the Bring Your Own Data Forum on Nov 14 UMich, Sloan to Enhance Open Access to Research Data University of Michigan
The Foundation believes that a carefully reasoned and systematic understanding of the forces of nature and society, when applied inventively and wisely, can lead to a better world for all. With its Basic Research program area, the Foundation expands that understanding by funding original, high-quality research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Grants in the Basic Research program area promise to substantively benefit society or significantly add to the body of scientific knowledge. By funding basic research, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has created a digital survey of the sky, is advancing species identification and discovery worldwide, and is crafting a better understanding of the built environment in which we live.
