Programme Thesis
Emergent Ventures is a rolling, global grant program from the Mercatus Center that funds bold, unconventional, high-impact projects—often with a strong entrepreneurial or contrarian bent—where traditional funding is too slow or too risk-averse. It exists to accelerate people with novel ideas and the drive to execute, regardless of academic pedigree or geography.
Selection Criteria
- Boldness and unconventionality of the idea
- Potential for high positive impact (often measured in expected value, not just academic output)
- Founder/team quality: demonstrated initiative, execution ability, and 'founder-market fit'
- Clarity and persuasiveness of the written application (the program values direct, compelling writing)
- Willingness to take risks and pursue non-traditional paths
- Global eligibility; no formal academic or institutional requirements
- Rolling deadline; decisions are made on a rolling basis, so timing and responsiveness matter
Past Winners / Cohort Profiles
Past winners include a wide range of founders, researchers, and creators—from AI safety researchers and biotech entrepreneurs to policy innovators and writers. Named examples from the page: Brie (a Stripe alum) won for a project on company culture playbooks; Tyler Cowen is the program lead. Winner archetypes are self-starters with a clear, ambitious project that doesn't fit standard grant categories, often with a commercial or practical bent.
Ideal Candidate Fingerprint
The ideal applicant is a self-directed, risk-tolerant builder with a concrete, high-upside project that challenges conventional wisdom. They have a track record of independent execution, can articulate their idea in plain, compelling language, and are likely to create outsized value—whether through a startup, a research breakthrough, or a novel public-good intervention.
Recommended Framing
For Eniola, the strongest angle is to frame the CCT model as a bold, unconventional, high-impact venture—not just a research project—that could transform addiction treatment and prevention. Emphasize the independent, multi-domain execution (pharmacology, ML, dynamical systems) and the pre-registered, hypothesis-confirming results as proof of founder-quality drive. Position the grant as enabling full-time development of a deployable intervention (e.g., a clinical decision-support tool or a drug-repurposing pipeline) that addresses a massive global health burden, especially in Africa. Name the CCT model explicitly and justify the fit: it is the most directly aligned with Emergent Ventures' appetite for contrarian, high-impact ideas that challenge mainstream addiction research.
Watch Out
None major, but note: Emergent Ventures favors projects with a clear path to real-world impact, not purely academic outputs. Eniola's other lines (e.g., ergofluids, psyche-twin) are more exploratory and less likely to resonate. Also, the application is written, not a formal grant proposal—so the writing must be crisp, non-academic, and persuasive. The rolling deadline means applying early is better.
Research History
2026-08-04 20:34 · medium confidence
2026-08-04 19:56 · medium confidence
2026-07-30 08:42 · high confidence