Fast Grants is a grantmaking project of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University that provides rapid grant funding for COVID-19 research. Initially funded by a $1 million grant by the Thiel Foundation in April 2020, Fast Grants has since made nearly 200 grants to support COVID-19 research. ¹

Though initially designed as a rapid response measure to COVID-19, project co-founder Tyler Cowen has expressed a hope that government research programs will adopt similar expedited funding measures, despite widespread criticism that such rapid grant allocation does not provide adequate time for peer review. ^{2 3}

Fast Grants has been largely funded by left-of-center donors, including Linked-In founder Reid Hoffman, tech mogul Paul Graham, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. In August 2020, Fast Grants received an additional donation from liberal donor MacKenzie Scott-Bezos after being named one of her “116 Organizations Driving Change.”  The program has also attracted donations from left-of-center foundations including Arnold Ventures, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Schmidt Futures. ^{4 5}

Founding and Early Initiatives

In early April 2020, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and economist Tyler Cowen founded Fast Grants as a project of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to provide accelerated grant funding to researchers and organizations to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was initially endowed with $12 million by left-of-center tech moguls including Reid Hoffman and Paul Graham. The Thiel Foundation, endowed by libertarian investor Peter Thiel, also provided $1 million in seed funding. ⁶

Since the project’s founding, Fast Grants has received donations from billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, and left-of-center philanthropist MacKenzie Scott-Bezos. Left-of-center foundations, including Arnold Ventures, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Schmidt Futures, have also provided funding for the project. ^{7 8}

Cowen and Collison modeled Fast Grants on the National Defense Research Committee’s grantmaking initiative during World War II, which funded projects related to national defense nearly overnight and eventually provided early funding for research into the atomic bomb and radar technologies. ⁹ Claiming that medical research and development moves too slowly, Fast Grants allowed scientists working on COVID-19 projects to submit applications in under 30 minutes and receive a response from a grant committee of 20 medical researchers within just two days of submission. Applicants were allowed to request grants between $10,000 and $500,000 to fund projects that would deliver results within six months. ¹⁰

Within its first two weeks, Fast Grants exhausted its initial funding supporting 68 projects on COVID-19. ¹¹ In June 2020, Fast Grants opened a second round of funding, committing to a two-week window for application review in order to do a “deeper analysis” of proposed projects.  Between the first and second rounds of funding, Fast Grants distributed over $40 million in grants before suspending the program. ¹²

Fast Grants has funded nearly 200 projects related to COVID-19. ¹³ Many of the projects have focused on rapid vaccine development, while other projects have evaluated the effects of comorbidities on COVID-19 fatalities, developed new treatment programs, and created new testing methodologies. ¹⁴

Criticisms

Despite initially being established as an emergency measure to fund COVID-19 research, Cowen expressed interest in continuing the program beyond the pandemic, claiming that existing funding processes do not provide the “capacity to respond to emergencies.” Researchers involved with the project expressed hope that processes like Fast Grants would become institutionalized in some medical grantmaking. ¹⁵

Nonetheless, critics have expressed concerns that the process of expedited grant review for scientific research limits the rigor of scientific review and overlooks important research done by young scientists, prioritizing those with prominent backgrounds and flashy affiliations. ¹⁶ Several research scientists, including infectious disease specialists, expressed doubt that such hasty peer review could yield well-constructed research studies. ¹⁷

1. Sellers, Frances Stead. “The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Science. But at What Cost?” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 19, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/covid-scientific-research/2020/10/19/970fecb0-0ca9-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html.
2. Piper, Kelsey. “This New Charity Offers Scientists Coronavirus Grants in 48 Hours.” Vox. Vox, April 21, 2020. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/21/21228156/coronavirus-fast-grants-tyler-cowen-patrick-collison.
3. Sellers, Frances Stead. “The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Science. But at What Cost?” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 19, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/covid-scientific-research/2020/10/19/970fecb0-0ca9-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html.
4. Fast Grants. “Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science.” Fast Grants Website. Undated. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://fastgrants.org/

5. Hollis, John. “Fast Grants Program is One of Many Getting a Financial Boost from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.” GMU.EDU Website. August 5, 2020. Accessed January 20, 2021. https://www2.gmu.edu/news/2020-08/fast-grants-program-one-many-getting-financial-boost-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott

6. Fast Grants. “Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science.” Fast Grants Website. Undated. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://fastgrants.org/

7. Fast Grants. “Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science.” Fast Grants Website. Undated. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://fastgrants.org/

8. Hollis, John. “Fast Grants Program is One of Many Getting a Financial Boost from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.” GMU.EDU Website. August 5, 2020. Accessed January 20, 2021. https://www2.gmu.edu/news/2020-08/fast-grants-program-one-many-getting-financial-boost-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott

9. Piper, Kelsey. “This New Charity Offers Scientists Coronavirus Grants in 48 Hours.” Vox. Vox, April 21, 2020. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/21/21228156/coronavirus-fast-grants-tyler-cowen-patrick-collison.
10. Fast Grants. “Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science.” Fast Grants Website. Undated. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://fastgrants.org/

11. Piper, Kelsey. “This New Charity Offers Scientists Coronavirus Grants in 48 Hours.” Vox. Vox, April 21, 2020. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/21/21228156/coronavirus-fast-grants-tyler-cowen-patrick-collison.
12. Fast Grants. “Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science.” Fast Grants Website. Undated. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://fastgrants.org/
13. Sellers, Frances Stead. “The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Science. But at What Cost?” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 19, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/covid-scientific-research/2020/10/19/970fecb0-0ca9-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html.
14. Sellers, Frances Stead. “The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Science. But at What Cost?” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 19, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/covid-scientific-research/2020/10/19/970fecb0-0ca9-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html.
15. Piper, Kelsey. “This New Charity Offers Scientists Coronavirus Grants in 48 Hours.” Vox. Vox, April 21, 2020. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/21/21228156/coronavirus-fast-grants-tyler-cowen-patrick-collison.
16. Piper, Kelsey. “This New Charity Offers Scientists Coronavirus Grants in 48 Hours.” Vox. Vox, April 21, 2020. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/21/21228156/coronavirus-fast-grants-tyler-cowen-patrick-collison.
17. Sellers, Frances Stead. “The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Science. But at What Cost?” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 19, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/covid-scientific-research/2020/10/19/970fecb0-0ca9-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html.