Emergent Ventures is a grant program created by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to fund for-profit solutions to social issues. ¹ It provides grants for projects that support the Mercatus Center’s position and research that holds that the free market can solve societal and social issues. ²

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Emergent Ventures launched Fast Grants, an expedited grantmaking program to fund solutions and research for the pandemic. Fast Grants has received funding from several major left-of-center philanthropists, including Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Jack Dorsey, and Mackenzie Scott-Bezos.

Background

In 2018, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University launched Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program that provides funding for entrepreneurs seeking to solve social issues. ³ The Mercatus Center is a free-market research institution housed at George Mason University in Northern Virginia that states that it researches how free markets can solve social and economic problems. ⁴

Emergent Ventures was started with a $1 million grant from the Thiel Foundation, seeking to fund for-profit solutions that are “not yet proven but promising.” Thiel stated that the purpose of the fund is to eliminate barriers to entry for entrepreneurs who have potential solutions. Emergent Ventures does not limit its grantmaking to any single cause as long as it is providing scalable solutions to “meaningfully improving society.” ⁵

Grantmaking

Emergent Ventures’ application page states that it awards grants to applicants that have ideas on ways to advance prosperity, opportunity, liberty, and well-being. It states that it seeks to fund ideas that are “moonshots” or ideas that are far from proving effective or possible but could have an astronomically positive effect on society. Additionally, it argues that for a project to be effective and scalable, profitability is the best way to achieve success. ⁶

In March 2020, Emergent Ventures creator and Mercatus Center Faculty Director Tyler Cowen revealed that Emergent Ventures would be distributing $1 million in prizes for work related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The awards and prize amounts were $50,000 for best investigative journalism on coronavirus, $100,000 for best blog or social media tracking/analysis of the virus, $50,000 for best “justified” coronavirus policy writing, $500,000 for best effort to find a good treatment rapidly, $100,000 for best innovation in social distancing, and $100,000 for most important innovation or improvement for India. ⁷

In response to COVID-19 pandemic, Emergent Ventures launched Fast Grants to create an expedited process for funding projects leading to tangible solutions or urgent research regarding the pandemic. The grants range from $10,000 to $500,000, and its website states it makes decisions within 14 days of applying. ⁸

Fast Grants has received donations from billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, and left-of-center philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Left-of-center foundations, including Arnold Ventures, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Schmidt Futures, have also provided funding for the project. ⁹

Emily Oster is an economist at Brown University and received a grant from Fast Grants for her study on COVID transmission in schools. Met with controversy, the study published findings that schools produce extremely low levels of COVID transmission and argued for that reason students should go back to school. The project also hosts a data hub that tracks COVID transmission within schools. ¹⁰

Leadership

Tyler Cowen is the chair of economics at George Mason University, faculty director for the Mercatus Center, and created Emergent Ventures in 2018. He is a coauthor of the economics blog Marginal Revolution and cofounded Marginal Revolution University, offering free online education. ¹¹

1. “Mercatus Center Launches Emergent Ventures.” Mercatus Center, July 18, 2018. https://www.mercatus.org/features/emergent-ventures.
2. “About.” Mercatus Center, August 13, 2020. https://www.mercatus.org/about.
3. “Mercatus Center Launches Emergent Ventures.” Mercatus Center, July 18, 2018. https://www.mercatus.org/features/emergent-ventures.
4. “About.” Mercatus Center, August 13, 2020. https://www.mercatus.org/about.
5. “Mercatus Center Launches Emergent Ventures.” Mercatus Center, July 18, 2018. https://www.mercatus.org/features/emergent-ventures.
6. “Emergent Ventures.” Workplace Productivity & Automation Tools. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://mercatuscenter.formstack.com/forms/emergent_ventures.
7. Cowen, Tyler. “$1 Million plus in Emergent Ventures Prizes for Coronavirus Work.” Marginal Recolution, April 13, 2020. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/03/1-million-plus-in-emergent-ventures-prizes-for-coronavirus-work.html.
8. Emergent Ventures.” Mercatus Center, October 22, 2021. https://www.mercatus.org/emergent-ventures.
9. Goldstein, Dana. “Emily Oster, the Brown Economist, Is Launching a New Data Hub on Schools and the Pandemic.” The New York Times. The New York Times, September 15, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/education/emily-oster-covid-data-schools.html.
10. Goldstein, Dana. “Emily Oster, the Brown Economist, Is Launching a New Data Hub on Schools and the Pandemic.” The New York Times. The New York Times, September 15, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/education/emily-oster-covid-data-schools.html.
11. Tyler Cowen.” Mercatus Center, February 6, 2020. https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/tyler-cowen.