Deadline: September 13, 2023
Applications are open for the William T. Grant Foundation Institutional Challenge Grant 2023. It aims to support university-based research institutes, schools, and centers in building sustained research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.
The grant requires that research institutions shift their policies and practices to value collaborative research. Institutions will also need to build the capacity of researchers to produce relevant work and the capacity of agency and nonprofit partners to use research. Applications from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, prevention of child abuse and neglect, foster care, mental health, immigration, and workforce development are welcomed, and the foundation especially encourages proposals from teams with African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American members in leadership roles. The partnership leadership team includes the principal investigator from the research institution and the lead from the public agency or nonprofit organization.
Research institutions will need to address four important goals: grow an existing institutional partnership with a public agency or nonprofit organization, pursue a joint research agenda to reduce inequality in youth outcomes, create institutional change to value research-practice partnerships within research institutions, and enhance the capacity of both partners to collaborate on producing and using research evidence.
Award
The award will provide $650,000 over three years. This includes:
- Up to $60,000 for up to 9 months of joint planning activities (e.g., refining protocols for partnering, selecting fellows, finalizing partnership and data sharing agreements, etc.).
- Funding for two years of a full-time equivalent fellowship. In addition, universities are required to fund one additional year of a full-time equivalent fellowship.Fellowships may be allocated in different ways, for example, by appointing one individual fellow for three years, or three different fellows each for one year, or six half-time fellows for one year each, etc. The minimum appointment level for a fellow is half-time for half of one year.
- Up to three years of support for the partnership to conduct and use research to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.
- Resources to advance the proposed institutional shifts and capacities of both partners.
- Indirect cost allowance of up to 15 percent of total direct costs.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be from tax-exempt organizations, including university-based research institutes, schools, or centers. Institutions outside of the academy, such as research organizations and think tanks, are not eligible.
- Proposals are encouraged from organizations that are under-represented among grantee institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Alaska Native-Serving Institutions, Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs).
Selection Criteria
Applications should meet the selection criteria detailed below:
- Planning Period
- Institutional Partnership
- Joint Research Agenda to Reduce Inequality in Youth Outcomes
- Changing Institutional Policies and Practices
- Developing the Capacity of the Mid-Career Fellows and Partners
Application
For complete application guidelines, including details on preparing and submitting an application, download the 2023 Application Guidelines.
For more information, visit Institutional Challenge Grant.
