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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is pleased to announce a new
Open Call for Letters of Inquiry:
Early-Career Faculty Support for Interdisciplinary Energy System Research
Submission Deadline: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Grants of $150,000 - $250,000 to be made for early-career faculty focusing on interdisciplinary social science research on energy system decarbonization in the United States
The Energy and Environment program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supports research, training, networking, and dissemination efforts to inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues. The program is inviting Letters of Inquiry from early-career faculty at the outset of their academic careers who are focusing on undertaking innovative interdisciplinary social science research related to the transition to a low-carbon economy in the United States. This Call for Letters of Inquiry is deliberately framed broadly to encourage submissions from a range of scholars drawn from different backgrounds and disciplines. It is expected that approximately 6-8 grants will be awarded from the Call, with grant amounts between $150,000 to $250,000 over a 2-3 year period.
Eligible investigators must be a current or incoming Assistant Professor or Assistant Research Professor based at a university or college in the United States, with their first faculty appointment at their current or any previous institution having a start date of August 1, 2022, or later.
Many of the questions and considerations for advancing low-carbon energy systems in the United States are complex and multifaceted, requiring approaches that weave together insights from multiple disciplines and fields of study. Interdisciplinary social science scholarship is needed to bridge silos across fields, foster meaningful collaborations, and analyze important questions from new and unique perspectives. For instance, interdisciplinary scholarship can help advance our understanding of new technologies and how best to deploy them across different contexts and geographies; of the drivers and dynamics of decision-making within different institutions and organizations and how these decisions affect outcomes for the energy system; of the varied barriers, opportunities, and needs for energy workforce training and development; of emerging issues arising from a growing overlap between the energy system and new sectors of the economy; and of community preferences for, and impacts due to, the implementation of different policy levers aimed at facilitating low-carbon transitions.
At the same time, much of the research ecosystem and funding landscape remains siloed, with fewer opportunities for researchers to advance the novel interdisciplinary research efforts that are needed to address these challenging questions. This is particularly true for early-career faculty who are seeking support for their initial, foundational projects that often help establish and develop longer-term research directions. Greater support for early-career faculty working in this area can help broaden participation in interdisciplinary energy system decarbonization research and expand the range of ideas, approaches, and solutions available.
Therefore, the intent of this Open Call is to support early-career faculty who wish to focus their scholarly agendas on emerging interdisciplinary energy systems decarbonization research questions and who are in the early stages of planning for or undertaking their initial research efforts. Compelling submissions will be expected to identify under-explored questions in these areas and result in generating scholarship, training students, strengthening researcher or practitioner networks, and disseminating knowledge to inform decision-making. Proposed efforts are encouraged to address questions that have been overlooked in decision-making related to energy system decarbonization and, where relevant, to substantially engage these communities in the research process. Proposed efforts are expected to combine approaches, methods, and frameworks from multiple disciplines, emphasize the training of graduate students, and develop or leverage meaningful collaborations with practitioners, policymakers, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders. Competitive submissions are expected to describe how the proposed efforts will help catalyze and develop the proposer’s future goals and research agenda.
Sample Topics and Research Questions
The program looks to support research in the following selected topic areas. Particular emphasis is placed on advancing scholarship on novel and unique research questions related to these themes, given that the focus of this Open Call is on helping early-career faculty advance their long-term research agendas. Prioritization will be given to submissions that approach these topics in new and creative ways:
- Energy system resilience and adaptation: Recent extreme weather and other events have shown that energy systems face numerous vulnerabilities that impact operations and overall resilience. Research is needed that examines how these impacts are affecting different components of energy infrastructure, energy system operations, and consumer behavior. Research is also needed that studies how energy systems may need to be redesigned to mitigate against potential future impacts.
- Energy markets and policy analysis: This topic reflects the program’s ongoing and longstanding interest in supporting scholarship that examines issues related to how energy markets function, assessing the impact of energy policies implemented at various levels of government, and thinking about the design, functionality, and affordability of key interventions or institutional mechanisms across the energy system. We are also looking to advance research on questions related to the economics of load growth patterns, regional and local economic development, and trade and macroeconomics.
- Low-carbon innovation and next generation energy technologies: Many recent analyses have suggested that the development and deployment of next generation energy technologies and low-carbon innovation needs to be scaled-up quickly and dramatically. The program looks to advance research that examines institutional design features, implementation considerations, and evaluation methods across different levels of governance—including state, local, and federal—for next generation energy technologies.
- Place-based energy transitions: There is a need for place-based, locally oriented research that explores how changes in the energy system might have differing impacts across a broad array of populations, regions, and communities. The program looks to support research that illuminates how the energy system might be better designed to address community needs across a variety of geographies in a more comprehensive manner.
- Transportation and mobility: The program looks to support scholarship aimed at understanding how transportation and mobility systems are changing. Potential activities could explore a range of topics related to emerging low-carbon transportation advances, with a particular focus on under-explored questions related to heavy-duty transport, mode-switching, commercial shipping, and the movement of freight.
- Industrial decarbonization: There is a growing need for scholarship that examines a range of emerging economic, social, policy, and technological developments related to industrial decarbonization and is able to inform how this often overlooked component of the energy transition might be accelerated. Research is needed that explores the drivers, mechanisms, and multifaceted impacts of the transition towards electrified and low-carbon industrial processes.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible investigators must be a current or incoming Assistant Professor or Assistant Research Professor based at a university or college in the United States, with their first faculty appointment at their current or any previous institution having a start date of August 1, 2022, or later.
- Priority will be given to researchers who have not previously received funding from the Sloan Foundation’s Energy and Environment program.
- Submissions that involve the participation of a project advisory board drawing from senior researchers, practitioners, decisionmakers, community organization representatives, or industrial stakeholders are strongly encouraged, but not required.
- Submissions should feature and describe participation from one or multiple graduate students, and priority will be given to submissions that feature strong graduate student participation.
- Researchers are allowed one submission as the lead investigator.
Informational Webinar
We will hold an informational webinar to discuss the required submission components and structure, with a focus on providing information on the broad guidelines of the Open Call and sharing insights for early-career faculty beginning to establish their interdisciplinary energy system decarbonization research agendas. Feedback on individual submissions or research questions will not be provided.
The webinar will be held on Tuesday February 3, 2026, from 1:00-2:00pm EST, and you can register for the webinar here: https://sloan.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rW5LER-mT4mpAd4rRl0K5Q#/registration. The webinar will be recorded and made available to share afterwards.
Submission Deadline
Submissions are due by Tuesday, March 17, 2026, by 5:00pm Eastern. For more information on the details of this Call or to submit an application, please go to https://apply.sloan.org/prog/early_career_call. All submission materials should be uploaded directly to the application portal.
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The Sloan Foundation Energy and Environment Program
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Energy and Environment program informs the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues. It achieves this mission by supporting research, training, networking, and dissemination efforts in this domain that shape the direction of scholarship. It looks to investigate under-explored questions that warrant further attention, advance collaborative and interdisciplinary research across the social and natural sciences, support early career faculty and train the next generation of students, link research with practice, and partner with other funders to amplify programmatic impact.
Evan Michelson, Program Director
Jessica Klynsma, Program Coordinator
Isabella Gee, Senior Program Associate
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