Emergent Ventures

Emergent Ventures

Invests in founders and thinkers whose ideas could create outsized technological progress and societal impact.

Emergent Ventures is a low-overhead fellowship and grant program administered by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, launched in 2018 under faculty director Tyler Cowen. The program supports entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and independent thinkers worldwide who have highly scalable, "zero to one" ideas for meaningfully improving society. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with no deadline, and decisions are typically made within weeks of submission.

Grant amounts range from $10,000 to $100,000, with most awards around $50,000. Any individual aged 13 or older from any country is eligible — no institutional affiliation is required, and for-profit ventures, nonprofits, and unaffiliated individuals all qualify. The application takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. Dedicated geographic sub-tracks are available for applicants focused on India (led by Shruti Rajagopalan through Emergent Ventures India), Africa and the Caribbean, and Ukraine, selectable from a dropdown on the application form. An AI-focused sub-track, Emergent Ventures AI, was launched in April 2022 with support from Schmidt Futures, targeting AI researchers and entrepreneurs particularly in emerging economies.

Emergent Ventures imposes minimal process overhead: there are no letters of intent, no lengthy eligibility reviews, and the program explicitly values novel or unconventional ideas over established track records. The Mercatus Center is based at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, and maintains a broader portfolio of fellowships and research programs in market-oriented economics and policy. Researchers seeking EV funding should apply directly via the Mercatus online form at mercatus.tfaforms.net; questions can be sent to emergentventures@mercatus.gmu.edu.