Energy & Environment Grant

_NOTE: The Energy and Environment program is not currently accepting letters of inquiry. The Sloan Foundation is very selective in the grants it makes in this area, and our grantmaking budget is fully allocated through 2025. Funding consideration may become available in 2026._

Energy & the Environment

Program goal: To inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues.

Strategy

Grants in this program focus on advancing a series of interrelated strategies.

• _Generating Novel Research:_ The primary focus of this program is to build an impartial economic, environmental, policy, science, and engineering knowledge base related to the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems as a public good.
• _Training the Next Generation of Scholars and Practitioners:_ A critical component of this program is training the next generation of scholars and practitioners capable of analyzing and addressing a wide range of challenges and opportunities across the energy system.
• _Building Multidisciplinary Networks:_ This program aims to foster new collaborations and strengthen existing research networks to enhance the effectiveness of research, training, and knowledge dissemination.
• _Disseminating Information for Decision-making:_ This program helps grantees widely share impartial research findings to inform the development of policies and practices that can help accelerate the societal transition to low-carbon energy systems.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• In selecting projects for funding, the Foundation seeks proposals for original initiatives led by outstanding individuals or teams.
• We are interested in projects that have a high expected return to society, exhibit a high degree of methodological rigor, and for which funding from the private sector, government, or other foundations is not yet widely available.
• Support is only provided for non-partisan, balanced, evidence-based analysis.
• Grants in this program focus on investigating underexplored research questions related to energy sources (supply), transmission and distribution, energy use (demand), new energy technologies, the economics of energy transmission and distribution, big data, energy efficiency, and transportation.

Ineligibility

• The Foundation does not engage in or support energy policy advocacy of any kind. Support is only provided for non-partisan, balanced, evidence-based analysis.
• This is not a “climate change” program. Projects focusing exclusively on climate change are considered outside the program’s scope.
• What We Do Not Fund
• The Foundation does not make grants to political campaigns, to support political activities, or to lobby for or against particular pieces of legislation.
• The Foundation does not make grants to individuals except through its Books program.
• The Foundation does not generally make grants to for-profit institutions.
• The Foundation does not make grants in religion, medical research, or research in the humanities.
• The Foundation does not make grants aimed at pre-college students except through its New York City initiative.
• The Foundation does not make grants to projects in the creative or performing arts except when those projects are related to educating the public about science, technology, or economics.
• The Foundation does not make grants for endowments, fundraising drives, or fundraising dinners.
• The Foundation does not make grants in support of the purchase, construction, or renovation of buildings or laboratories. On some occasions, the Foundation will support the purchase or construction of scientific equipment if such equipment is essential to the success of a Foundation-supported research project or educational initiative.