Deadline Date: April 30, 2025
Donor Name: Pulitzer Center
Grant Size: $1000 to $10,000
Category: Grant
The Spencer Foundation is seeking applications for its Racial Equity Research Grants Program to support education research projects that will contribute to understanding and ameliorating racial inequality in education.
They are interested in research projects that seek to envision educational opportunities in a multiplicity of education systems, levels, settings, and developmental ranges and that reach beyond documenting conditions and paradigms that contribute to persistent racial inequalities.
Their goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious, and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in relation to racial equity in education.
Focus Areas
- Youth and educator mental health that explores possibilities that promote resilience, center healing, and foster well-being;
- Current political challenges in Pre-K-12 and higher education around diversity, equity, and inclusion;
- Youth civic education and engagement across learning contexts.
Funding Information
- Grant amount up to $75,000 for projects ranging from one to five years.
Eligible Expenses
- Salaries (PI, Co-PI, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Graduate Student Researcher, Undergraduate Researcher, Other Research Staff, Other Staff)
- Benefits (PI Benefits, Co-PI Benefits)
- Researcher Benefits
- Other Staff Benefits, Tuition/Fees)
- Other Collaborator (Independent Consultant, Advisor)
- Travel (Project Travel, Conference or Dissemination Travel)
- Equipment and Software (Equipment, Software)
- Project Expenses (Supplies, Participant Stipends/Costs, Communication, Transcription)
- Other (This should only be used for expenses not covered)
- Subcontracts
Eligibility Criteria
- Proposals to the Racial Equity Research Grants program must be for academic research projects that will contribute to understanding and ameliorating racial inequality in education, broadly conceived. Proposals for activities other than research are not eligible (e.g., program evaluations, professional development, curriculum development, scholarships, capital projects). Additionally, proposals for research studies focused on areas other than education are not eligible.
- Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs applying for a Racial Equity Research Grant must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field. While graduate students may be part of the research team, they may not be named the PI or Co-PI on the proposal.
- The PI must be affiliated with a non-profit organization or public/governmental institution that is willing to serve as the administering organization if the grant is awarded. Examples include non-profit or public colleges, universities, school districts, and research facilities, as well as other non-profit organizations with a 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS (or equivalent non-profit status if the organization is outside of the United States). The Spencer Foundation does not award grants directly to individuals.
- Proposals are accepted from the U.S. and internationally, however, all proposals must be submitted in English and budgets must be proposed in U.S. Dollars.
Review Criteria
- Significance of the Project: Reviewers will evaluate the centrality of racial equity and education in the research, the importance of the topic to transforming inequality, and the quality of the research question(s) and/or direction of inquiry. Reviewers will also evaluate whether the proposed research goes beyond documenting conditions and paradigms that contribute to persistent inequality.
- Connection to Research and Theory: Reviewers will evaluate the adequacy of the description of how other researchers have treated the same topic and how well the proposal responds to prior work and theory.
- Research Design: Reviewers will evaluate the overall quality, sophistication, and appropriateness of the research design as well as its alignment with the research question(s) and/or conceptual framing.
- Budget and Timeline: Reviewers will evaluate the adequacy of the budget and timeline.
- Project Team: Reviewers will comment on the potential of the investigator(s) to complete the study as described and share the results or other findings.
For more information, visit Spencer Foundation.
