Programme Thesis
Emergent Ventures is a rolling, flexible grant program by Tyler Cowen and the Mercatus Center that funds high-impact, unconventional projects across a wide range of fields, from UFO detection to creative writing. It exists to support bold, underfunded ideas and people who might be overlooked by traditional funding mechanisms, with an emphasis on ambition, novelty, and potential for transformative impact.
Selection Criteria
No formal eligibility criteria; open to anyone. Selection is based on the perceived potential for high impact and unconventionality of the project. The application is short (<1500 words) and includes three sections: personal story, a mainstream view you agree with, and a project proposal. Tyler Cowen personally reviews applications and interviews awardees. Strong applications demonstrate ever-growing ambition, novel thinking, and a clear, actionable project. The mainstream view section rewards thought-through, novel takes on widely held beliefs. The project proposal should be specific, technically grounded, and show progress or a clear path to implementation.
Past Winners / Cohort Profiles
Past winners include a UAP detection network builder (the author of the guide), author Helen DeWitt for creative work, and others. Winner archetypes are unconventional, ambitious individuals pursuing projects that are often overlooked by mainstream funders, ranging from tech ventures to creative arts. Grant sizes vary from a few thousand to $175k, with most being smaller.
Ideal Candidate Fingerprint
The ideal applicant is a self-driven, ambitious individual with a bold, unconventional project that has clear potential for high impact. They are not necessarily credentialed or affiliated with institutions, but they demonstrate deep thinking, technical competence, and a track record of execution. They can articulate a novel insight and a concrete plan, and they are likely to be a 'doer' rather than just a proposer.
Recommended Framing
For Eniola, the strongest angle is to lead with the CCT model as a bold, underfunded idea that could transform addiction treatment, emphasizing its unconventional tripartite framework and the fact that it was developed independently, outside traditional academic labs. Frame the project as a high-impact, Africa-rooted initiative that challenges mainstream addiction research, appealing to Tyler Cowen's interest in promising but overlooked ventures. The personal story should highlight the journey from Nigerian pharmacist to independent computational researcher, and the mainstream view could challenge the assumption that addiction treatment must be clinic-based, arguing for a computational pharmacology-first approach.
Watch Out
The applicant's focus on academic research and pre-PhD stage may not perfectly match EV's typical preference for entrepreneurial or policy-oriented ventures. The application is short, so the applicant must be concise and avoid overloading with technical details. Also, the applicant has multiple research lines; focusing on one (CCT) is critical to avoid diluting the pitch.