20-05-2025
Tyler Cowen
Philanthropic organizations are often mired in bureaucracy that can make the process of applying for funding lengthy and tedious. Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, is pioneering a different approach.
Since 2018, Cowen has run Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program for entrepreneurs working on highly scalable ideas for meaningfully improving society. Applicants answer a handful of questions and get a response in a week or two. To date, the program, which is backed by donors such as Schmidt Futures, has supported over a thousand people—many still in their teens—working on ventures ranging from scientific innovation to personal development. The 2025 cohort includes a University of Chicago research director working on a non-invasive blood glucose monitor and a Vanderbilt University student developing prosthetics and bionic arms.
'I've focused on trying to mobilize talent that otherwise is not discovered or inspired,' says Cowen, who screens most applications Ventures' successes include funding one of the first COVID-19 saliva tests via its Fast Grants program and a prison reform startup that used data analysis to identify over 150,000 safe candidates for early release. With dedicated tracks for applicants in India, Africa and the Caribbean, Ukraine, and Taiwan, grantees have regular meet-ups across the world. Says Cowen, 'Anyone who wins has a direct line to me.'
