Institutional Challenge Grant – Sep 13

Posted by William T. Grant Foundation on August 1, 2023

William T. Grant Foundation invites applications for Institutional Challenge Grant

The William T. Grant Foundation invites applications for its Institutional Challenge Grant, which supports 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 are welcomed from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, prevention of child abuse and neglect, foster care, mental health, immigration, and workforce development. Proposals from teams with African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American members in leadership roles are especially encouraged. The partnership leadership team includes the principal investigator from the research institution and the lead from the public agency or nonprofit organization.

The foundation’s Institutional Challenge Grant asks grantees to pursue four 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.

The award will provide $650,000 over three years, which includes: up to $60,000 for up to nine months of joint planning activities (e.g., refining protocols for partnering, selecting fellows, finalizing partnership and data sharing agreements, etc.); and 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, 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; and indirect cost allowance of up to 15 percent of total direct costs.

To be eligible, research institutions must be from tax-exempt organizations, including university-based research institutes, schools, or centers. Institutions outside 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).

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the William T. Grant Foundation website.

Deadline: September 13, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. ET