Spencer Foundation Research Grants on Education: COVID-19 Related Special Grant Cycle

Spencer Foundation Research Grants on Education: COVID-19 Related Special Grant Cycle

Set up in 1971, the Spencer Foundation is a US-based funder of education research and wishes to increase opportunities for all as well as improve education in order to impact positively on people’s lives.

The Foundation’s Research Grants on Education: COVID-19 Related Special Grant Cycle supports academic research projects that will contribute to understanding the rapid shifts in education and methods for improving education during the coronavirus pandemic. The call is ‘field-initiated’ in that proposal submissions are not required to focus on a particular research topic, discipline, design or method. It is hoped that researchers will identify the most compelling and needed areas of immediate research.

There are two primary categories of project that the Foundation is interested in funding:

Studies that aim to understand and disrupt the reproduction and deepening of educational inequality caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Research projects that are working to reimagine educational opportunities. The Foundation recognises that in this time of great disruption and change, there may be opportunities to remake and imagine new forms of equitable education. The Foundation is open to what these reimagined educational opportunities might be.

The overall goal for the call is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education during this time of the coronavirus pandemic.

Proposals can be at all levels and in all settings of learning, including early childhood, higher education, and in schools, families and communities. Projects will be supported that are multidisciplinary, span a wide range of topics and use various methodological perspectives, thus utilising a wide range of research methods.

Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs applying must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field, or appropriate experience in an education research-related profession. PIs must be affiliated with a non-profit organisation that is willing to serve as the administering organisation if the grant is awarded, such as a college, university, school district, research facility or other non-profit organisation. Proposals are accepted from the US and internationally.

Grants are limited to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to three years.

The Foundation is accepting proposals on a rolling basis until 8 June 2020. There will be three review cycles, with the cut off dates for each being 4 May 2020, 18 May 2020 and 8 June 2020. It is expected that funding decisions will be made within two weeks of each review date.

More information about this research funding opportunity and the application process is available on the RESEARCHconnect funding information platform. RESEARCHconnect provides up-to-the minute content, insight and analysis on research funding news and policy. To find out more about how RESEARCHconnect can keep you in the know, and subscription fees, contact us today.