Philanthropically Funding the Foundation of Fields with Adam Falk [Idea Machines #45]

In this conversation, Adam Falk and I talk about running research programs with impact over long timescales, creating new fields, philanthropic science funding, and so much more. 

Adam is the president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,  which was started by the eponymous founder of General Motors and has been funding science and education efforts for almost nine decades. 

They’ve funded everything from iPython Notebooks to the Wikimedia foundation to an astronomical survey of the entire sky. If you’re like me, their name is familiar from the acknowledgement part of PBS science shows.

Before becoming the president of the Sloan Foundation, Adam was the president of Williams College and a high energy physicist focused on elementary particle physics and quantum field theory. His combined experience in research, academic administration, and philanthropic funding give him a unique and fascinating perspective on the innovation ecosystem. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. 

Links

- The Sloan Foundation - Adam Falk on Wikipedia  - Philanthropy and the Future of Science and Technology

Highlight Timestamps

- How do you measure success in science? [00:01:31]

- Thinking about programs on long timescales [00:05:27]

-  How does the Sloan Foundation decide which programs to do? [00:08:08]

- Sloan's Matter to Life Program [00:12:54]

-  How does the Sloan Foundation think about coordination? [00:18:24]

-  Finding and incentivizing program directors [00:22:32]

- What should academics know about the funding world and what should the funding world know about academics? [00:28:03]

- Grants and academics as the primary way research happens [00:33:42]

- Problems with grants and common grant applications [00:44:49]

- Addressing the criticism of philanthropy being inefficient because it lacks market mechanisms [00:47:16]

- Engaging with the idea that people who create value should be able to capture that value [00:53:05]

Transcript

[00:00:35]

In this conversation, Adam Falk, and I talk about running research programs with impact over long timescales, creating new fields, philanthropic science funding, and so much more. Adam is the president of the Alfred P Sloan foundation, which was started by the eponymous founder of general motors. And has been funding science and education efforts for almost nine decades. They funded everything from IP.

I fond [00:01:35] notebooks to Wikimedia foundation. To an astronomical survey of the entire sky. If you're like me, their name is familiar from the acknowledgement part of PBS science shows. Before becoming the president of the Sloan foundation. Adam was the president of Williams college and I high energy physicist focused on elementary particle physics in quantum field theory.

His combined experience in research. Uh, Academic administration and philanthropic funding give him a unique and fascinating perspective on the innovation ecosystem i hope you enjoy this as much as i did

[00:02:06] Ben: Let's start with like a, sort of a really tricky thing that I'm, I'm myself always thinking about is that, you know, it's really hard to like measure success in science, right?

Like you, you know, this better than anybody. And so just like at, at the foundation, how do you, how do you think about success? Like, what is, what does success look like? What is the difference between. Success and failure mean to

[00:02:34] Adam: you? [00:02:35] I mean, I think that's a, that's a really good question. And I think it's a mistake to think that there are some magic metrics that if only you are clever enough to come up with build them