2025 Young Scholars Program – Jun 3 (LOI)

Posted by Foundation for Child Development on May 28, 2024

Foundation for Child Development issues RFP for 2025 Young Scholars Program

The mission of the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) is to harness the power of research to ensure that all young children benefit from early learning experiences that affirm their individual, family, and community assets, fortify them against harmful consequences arising from poverty, racism, prejudice, and discrimination, and strengthen their developmental potential.

FCD invites LOIs for its 2025 Young Scholars Program, which funds research projects that aim to clarify how, why, and for whom policies, programs, and practices address the early care and education (ECE) workforce and shape children’s early learning experiences and well-being in early childhood, defined as birth through age 8. Proposals must be relevant to the foundation’s interest in implementation research to support the capacity and status of the ECE workforce. Studies may encompass descriptive, experimental, or measurement-focused approaches. The foundation seeks research proposals with implications for policy or practice. In addition, research that builds from the interests and priorities of the communities, educators, or families who are engaged in the research is highly valued.

Research awards are up to $225,000 for primary data collection and analysis and up to $180,000 for secondary data analysis.

The foundation encourages applications from scholars who are from underrepresented groups that have historically experienced poverty, racism, xenophobia, prejudice, and discrimination. Such groups include, but are not limited to, researchers of color, first-generation college graduates, and researchers from low-income communities and/or immigrant families; and scholars who represent a variety of disciplines and methodological approaches.

To be eligible, researchers must have received their doctoral degrees (e.g., PhD, EdD, PsyD, JD, MD, etc.) within 10 years of submitting their applications to the program. In medicine, the date of the completion of the first residency is used for this calculation.

Letters of intent are due June 3, 2024. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application by October 15, 2024.

For additional information on research focus, eligibility criteria, application instructions, and timeline, see the FCD website.

Deadline: June 3, 2024 (Letters of Intent)