Fast Grants is an American charity that provides funding for scientific research.[1] The project was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide quick funding to scientists working on research projects that could help with the pandemic.[2]
History
editThe project was launched in April 2020 by Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University; Patrick Collison, co-founder of online payment processing platform Stripe; and Patrick Hsu, a bioengineer at the University of California.[3]
Support
editThe project is supported by donations from Arnold Ventures, The Audacious Project, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, John Collison, Patrick Collison, Crankstart, Jack Dorsey, Kim and Scott Farquhar, Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Fiona McKean and Tobias Lütke, Yuri and Julia Milner, Elon Musk, Chris and Crystal Sacca, Schmidt Futures, and others.[4][5]
Grants
editFast Grants provides funding between $10,000 and $500,000. The charity says they respond to applications within two days, and will also fund researchers outside the United States.[2]
As of April 2021, Fast Grants has awarded 250 grants totaling more than $50 million to researchers working on COVID-19 related projects, including testing, clinical work, surveillance, virology, drug development and trials, and PPE.[1][6] Fast Grants provided initial funding for SalivaDirect, the saliva test used in the NBA “bubble” in Orlando during the 2020 season.[7] Other notable grant recipients include Addgene, the Center for Open Science, Susan Athey, Carolyn Bertozzi, Catherine Blish, Pamela Bjorkman, Susan Daniel, Barbara Engelhardt, Laura Esserman, Judith Frydman, Amy Gladfelter, Eva Harris, Akiko Iwasaki, Kevin Kain, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, Nevan Krogan, Ronald Levy, Allison McGeer, Miriam Merad, Keith Mostov, Mihai Netea, Daniel Nomura, Melanie Ott, Bradley Pentelute, Rosalind Picard, Hidde Ploegh, Angela Rasmussen, Erica Ollmann Saphire, Katherine Seley-Radtke, Erec Stebbins, Alice Ting, Alain Townsend, David Veesler, Bert Vogelstein, Tania Watts, and Qian Zhang.[4]
As of January 2022, new Fast Grants applications have been paused due to lack of additional funding.[8]
Impact
editThe pioneering Fast Grants program has inspired multiple other well-funded efforts that replicate its low overhead, high impact funding model. Some examples include Impetus Grants for longevity research (>$30M of funding), Robert Downey Jr.'s Footprint Coalition for climate change, and Superalignment Fast Grants from OpenAI for safe AI development ($10M of funding).
References
edit- ^ a b Hobson, Will. "Scientists wait months for coronavirus research grants. This economist is trying to fix that". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
- ^ a b Piper, Kelsey (21 April 2020). "This new charity offers scientists coronavirus grants in 48 hours". Vox.
- ^ Else, Holly (2021-08-03). "COVID 'Fast Grants' sped up pandemic science". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-02111-7. PMID 34345037. S2CID 236916209.
- ^ a b "Fast Grants". Fast Grants. Archived from the original on 2021-12-23. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
- ^ "A group of tech billionaires is funding 'fast grants' of up to $500,000 for COVID-19 research, with every grant decision made in less than 48 hours". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
- ^ "What We Learned Doing Fast Grants". Future. 15 June 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- ^ "Yale-sponsored COVID-19 test was partially funded by Fast Grant program". George Mason University. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
- ^ "Fast Grants". 2022-01-13. Archived from the original on 2022-01-13. Retrieved 2022-01-18.