CNCS 2018 Research Grant Competition: Community Conversations

Posted by Corporation for National and Community Service on March 5, 2018

The Corporation for National and Community Service today released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) of up to $500,000 for the 2018 Community Conversations Research competition. The broad focus of the competition is to engage communities in conversations about their civic health using participatory research approaches to facilitate civic engagement and strengthen community capacity to address local issues, both of which are central to CNCS’s mission.

This research competition will award funds to institutions of higher education to support academics and applied researchers who work with and in local communities to use a participatory research approach to:

• actively engage residents and other local stakeholders in a research process,
• identify a local issue of concern to the community,
• understand what may facilitate or hinder participation to address the issue, and
• create a collaborative action plan to increase civic engagement and build relationships to tackle the community-identified issue.

CNCS seeks to support participatory research in three types of communities, with equal priority: communities that are already working collaboratively to tackle a locally identified issue; communities that have experienced a disaster; and communities in social crisis.

The deadline for applications will be on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 by 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Successful applicants will receive awards of between $50,000 and $100,000 per year for up to 2 years.

The first technical assistance call will be on Thursday, March 22, 2018 at 2:00 pm Eastern Time.

The 2018 Community Conversations Research NOFO, guidance on how to apply, and technical assistance call information can be found here. Questions about the grant and application process can be sent to NationalServiceResearch@cns.gov.