Sloan Higher Education Program

Sloan Higher Education

Offers fellowship opportunities supporting broader STEM access and education initiatives.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Higher Education program makes rolling grants to U.S. colleges, universities, and partner nonprofit organizations working to expand fair access and opportunity in STEM higher education. The program pursues three focus areas: widening STEM graduate pathways by removing systemic barriers, transforming graduate education through student-centered and inclusive practices, and building a more diverse STEM professoriate. Signature initiatives include the University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring, the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership, the Exemplary Pathways to STEM Graduate Education open call (up to $500,000 per award, with a June 1, 2026 LOI deadline for the current cycle), and the Sloan Centers for Systemic Change. The Foundation has not published a standard award ceiling or floor for rolling Higher Education grants outside the Exemplary Pathways call.

Eligible applicants include U.S. nonprofit institutions of higher education and organizations working in partnership with them. For-profit institutions and individuals are not eligible. The intake process is rolling and requires no fixed submission date: applicants send a brief project description or a two-page Letter of Inquiry by email to the Higher Education program team. The LOI must include the project's nature and purpose, a description of planned work, total project cost and amount requested from Sloan, estimated duration, and key team member names and affiliations. The Foundation responds to LOIs within approximately eight weeks. If invited, organizations then submit a formal proposal for peer review; major grants above $250,000 are approved by the Foundation's board on a quarterly schedule.

The best-positioned applicants are institutions with demonstrated track records in graduate mentoring, STEM diversity, or systemic change initiatives, particularly those that can show multi-institutional collaboration and clear student outcome metrics. Program Director Lorelle L. Espinosa leads the Higher Education team and can be contacted through the Foundation's website for questions about program fit before an LOI is submitted.