A fund of Carina Initiatives, with strategic support from Renaissance Philanthropy
A multi-donor fund to find and develop the young people who could push the frontier in math and science, and to build the evidence and public support for government to take that work to national scale.
Scientific progress depends heavily on a small number of people doing frontier work. Children with the ability to become those people show it early. Whether they get there depends on whether a country builds the systems to find and develop them.
inventors comes from the top 5% of third-grade math scorers
New York City public school students.
Source: Bell, Chetty et al.
as likely to become an inventor for top students from high-income families
6.5 per 1,000 against 3 for top scorers from low- and middle-income families.
Source: Bell, Chetty et al.
as likely to become an inventor when top students are found early and given advanced work
About 50 per 1,000 for students identified in the top 1% at age 13.
Source: Lubinski & Benbow
China built its K-12 system to develop technical talent and has kept improving it for decades. Its standard math curriculum reaches algebra in seventh grade. It screens for talent through competitions at every age, enrolls its strongest students in specialized schools and classes, and now runs combined undergraduate-to-PhD programs for students as young as 14. The results are showing up at the frontier.
Sources: OECD PISA 2025 · Financial Times · Carnegie China
Share of 15-year-olds reaching the top level of math (PISA 2025)
High school students a year in each country's top national math competition
Share of the world's top AI researchers who did their undergraduate degree in each country (2025)
*China's PISA results cover Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
A National Math Star
They started calling me ‘the tenth grader in a fourth grade class.’
A child with exceptional ability needs three things: to be found, to be taught at their level, and to be surrounded by peers, mentors and opportunities that push them further. In the U.S., this rarely happens.
Most schools find gifted students through referrals, which miss many talented children from low-income families. Only 12 states require schools to screen every child. When a large Florida district started screening everyone, the share of third graders identified as gifted rose from 3.3% to 5.5%.
Sources: NAGC State of the States (2022–23) · Card & Giuliano, PNAS (2016)
The top 5% of third graders are about three grade levels ahead in math. Yet only 7% of elementary schools put students in separate math classes by achievement, and only about a quarter of middle schools offer a path two years ahead, such as algebra in seventh grade.
Sources: NWEA norms; RAND (2024); Carina analysis of federal Civil Rights Data Collection, 2021–22
Most of the programs that develop top math students are private and fee-based, and they're concentrated in a handful of wealthy metros. Two-thirds of the country's top high school math competitors come from the wealthiest counties, home to a fifth of Americans.
Source: Carina analysis of 2025 USAMO and USAJMO qualifiers and Census data
A National Math Star
Living in a smaller rural community, you really are carving out your own path.
America develops athletic talent systematically and leaves academic talent to chance. We invest in the system math and science need: screening every child, letting strong students move ahead, and surrounding them with peers and mentors.
We fund the organizations that do this work in the U.S.: talent search, advanced courses, competitions, camps and research programs.
We take proven models abroad and work with governments to build their own talent systems in public schools, with partners in Brazil, India, Africa and Colombia.
We fund the research and advocacy that turn these programs' proof points into public policy and funding: state screening and automatic enrollment, federal programs, and portable talent scholarships.
A National Math Star
It’s like I’d been holding in my thoughts, and then suddenly, I could say them out loud.
The National Science Foundation is reviving the program that gave about 18,000 talented students advanced math and science before it ended in 1996. The same day, NSF awarded National Math Stars $30 million over four years, matched by private funders.
Two of our grantees were critical here. National Math Stars built a model that works and can scale, and FAI pressed Congress to bring the program back.
Sources: National Math Stars · Bloomberg (via Business Standard) · FAI testimony
Grantee spotlight
Finds the top students in its partner states using state test data, and gives the strongest a decade of advanced coursework, coaching, camps and family advising.
Researches and briefs federal and state policymakers on how to find and develop America's future scientists.
FAI's national strategy, published in March 2026, now shows up in federal policy:
Congress“identify and accelerate top-tier K-12 STEM talent”
House Armed Services, FY2027 defense bill
White House“identify and invest early in high-potential students”
White House science office, FY2028 priorities
A full-scholarship residential school in Kigali for the continent's strongest young mathematicians, opened in 2025.
Building an operating platform that makes it easy for math professors to start residential math camps.
Runs selective online programs in which exceptional teenagers design and carry out original research, with mentors and scholarships.
Supports dissertation fellowships for economics PhD students studying how to find and develop math talent, and hosts the annual Economics of Talent conference.
President
Carina Initiatives
Board member, Art of Problem Solving and National Math Stars
Program Manager, Talent Ventures
Carina Initiatives
Board member, National Math Camps
Program Manager, Policy and Research
Renaissance Philanthropy
Interested in learning more or joining the fund? We're happy to share our full fund overview. Email josh@carina.fund.
The Hidden Einsteins Fund is led and anchored by Carina Initiatives, with strategic support from Renaissance Philanthropy.
We find most grantees through our networks and referrals. If your work fits one of the three tracks, you're welcome to write to partnership@carina.fund, though we can't respond to every inquiry.