Sloan Economics Research Program

Sloan Economics Research

Supports economics and policy studies on technology, infrastructure, and caregiving through national research opportunities.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Economics program supports original economic research across four focus areas: the economics of science and technology (including industrial strategy, emerging technologies, regional development, scientific careers, and research funding practices); the economics of transportation and infrastructure (examining costs, benefits, and U.S. bottlenecks); the economics of caregiving (workforce policies, reimbursement systems, and care for those unable to self-care); and strengthening the economics profession through conferences, methodological training, open datasets, and computational techniques. Recent standard research grants under this program ranged from $25,000 to $125,487. The program also operates an emergency track for economics-related projects with terminated NSF funding, where grants can reach up to $250,000.

Eligible applicants include U.S. and international nonprofits, universities, and research organizations. For-profit institutions and individuals are not eligible. The intake process is rolling with no fixed deadline: applicants submit a brief Letter of Inquiry to the Economics program that demonstrates potential interest in submitting a full proposal within 18 months. The LOI checklist is downloadable from the program's page at sloan.org and completed LOIs are emailed directly to the program team. The Foundation responds to LOIs within approximately eight weeks. Major grants above $250,000 require quarterly board approval, which extends the timeline for larger requests.

Applicants whose work sits at the intersection of economics and technology policy, infrastructure investment, or labor market dynamics are well positioned for this program given its current focus areas. A strong LOI will briefly describe the research question, explain its fit with one of the four program themes, name the principal investigator and affiliated institution, estimate the project budget and timeline, and articulate the expected contribution to economic knowledge. The Economics program page on sloan.org also includes a database of recent grants, which serves as the most practical guide to calibrating award size and framing.