Large Research Grants on Education – Feb 24

Posted by Spencer Foundation on January 6, 2026

Spencer Foundation invites proposals for large education research grants

The Spencer Foundation invites applications for its Large Research Grants on Education program, which supports education research projects with the potential to contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived.

The program aims to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious, and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. The foundation aims to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse. The program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career.

Proposals may span a wide range of topics and disciplines that investigate questions central to education, including anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, and neuroscience. Researchers may incorporate data from multiple and varied sources spanning a sufficient length of time to achieve a depth of understanding and/or work closely with practitioners or community members over the project’s life. Research may employ many research methods and techniques, including quantitative, qualitative, mixed, ethnographic, design-based, participatory, and historical. Projects that thoughtfully consider their findings’ trajectories, implications, and potential impacts, including how the knowledge may be shared and utilized across the field, in practice, in policy making, and/or with the broader public, are encouraged. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. Our 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 education.

Through the program, projects with budgets ranging from $125,000 to $500,000 over one to five years will be considered.

Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-PIs applying for a Large Research Grant on Education 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. Applicants should be affiliated with a nonprofit organization or public/governmental institution.

A pre-proposal is due February 24, 2026, at 12 noon CT, and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, due June 23, 2026, at 12 noon CT.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Spencer Foundation website.

Deadline: February 24, 2026 at 12:00 noon CT (Pre-proposal)