Sloan Research Fellowships — Fellowship

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awards this fellowship to early-career faculty conducting fundamental research in seven eligible fields. It provides flexible research funding for two years.

Recipients remain at their U.S. or Canadian degree-granting institutions while carrying out their work. Independent field-specific committees select fellows for their research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to lead their fields.

Benefits & funding

$75,000 paid in one lump sum to the fellow’s institution for use over a two-year term.
Funds may support staffing or technical assistance, professional travel, laboratory expenses, equipment, trainee support, or summer salary.
Indirect costs and institutional overhead are not permitted.

Eligibility

Hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree in chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, or a related field.
Be a faculty member at a college, university, or other degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada.
Be tenure-track but untenured as of September 15, 2026.
Hold a faculty position with a regular annual teaching obligation.
Have a nomination letter from a department head or another senior researcher; each department may nominate no more than three candidates in each fellowship field.
Past or current Sloan Research Fellows are not eligible for another fellowship. No nationality requirement is stated.

Can you apply?

Here's who can apply

Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.

Education required
PhD

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Application process

1
Create or access the nominee account in the SM Apply portal and complete the nominee, nominator, and support-writer information forms.
2
Request one confidential nomination letter and three confidential letters of support through the portal.
3
Upload a full curriculum vitae with publications, two representative articles, and a one-page research statement covering significant work and immediate research plans.
4
Submit the nominee’s materials by September 15, 2026; nomination and support letter writers have until September 22, 2026 to upload their letters.

Program timeline

Nomination period opened.
July 15, 2026
Nominee application deadline.
September 15, 2026, 11:59 p.m. EDT
Final deadline for nomination and support letters.
September 22, 2026
Fellows announced.
Mid-February 2027
Two-year fellowship term begins.
September 15, 2027