Small Education Research Projects – Dec 15

Posted by Spencer Foundation on November 4, 2025

Spencer Foundation invites applications for Small Education Research Projects

The Spencer Foundation has been a leading funder of education research since 1971 and is the only national foundation focused exclusively on supporting education research.

The foundation invites applications for its Small Research Grants Program, which will support education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets of $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years.

The program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their careers and anticipates that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that investigate questions central to education, including education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience. Projects may apply various research methods, including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research.

The foundation is open to projects that might incorporate data from multiple and varied sources, span a sufficient length of time to achieve a depth of understanding, or work closely with practitioners or community members over the life of the project.

To be eligible, principal investigators and co-PIs must have earned a doctorate in an academic or professional field. PIs must be affiliated with a nonprofit organization or public/governmental institution that is willing to serve as the administering organization if the grant is awarded.

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

Deadline: December 15, 2025 at 12:00 noon CT