NCER: Transformative Research in the Education Sciences Grant Program

Overview

In fiscal year (FY) 2025, the Transformative Research in the Education Sciences Grants program will focus on accelerating learning and reducing persistent education inequities by leveraging evidence-based principles from the learning sciences coupled with advanced technology to create high-reward, scalable technology solutions. Decades of learning sciences research—the interdisciplinary study of how people learn and how characteristics of the learning environment affect the learning process—have resulted in robust principles for learning that can serve as the basis for creating novel learning experiences. Technology is rapidly advancing, creating new opportunities to explore how it can support learning. Technology also provides a means to integrate evidence-based principles into the learning process at scale.

Through this program, researchers, product developers, and educators will work together to develop a transformative solution to a persistent challenge in education. The partners will leverage these insights and advances, conduct research to inform the development of a solution, and prepare the solution for scaling by considering issues such as product-market fit, the needs of users, and how variability in local context affects how the solution is implemented. These projects will be challenging due to the complexities of these partnerships combined with the barriers to adapting advanced technology for use in education. However, by bringing these partners together from the very beginning, there is the potential to create high-reward, scalable technology solutions to persistent challenges in education.   

NCER’s Transformative Research in the Education Sciences Grants Program supports research and development that yields outcomes and products that are meaningful and useful to learners and the educators and education institutions that serve them and informs stakeholders about the cost and practical benefits and effects of programs, practices, and policies on relevant outcomes for learners across the lifespan.

NCER expects grantees to disseminate evidence in a way that is useful to and accessible by learners, educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public. To support broad access to research data and study findings, IES grantees must comply with the IES Policy Regarding Public Access to Research and adhere to other open science practices where applicable.

Program requires cost sharing or matching.

[See p. 4 of sponsor RFA re: Changes to the FY 2025 RFA.]

Letter of Intent (LOI) due: June 6, 2024
The LOI is non-binding and optional but strongly recommended. 

Cost sharing: IES is requiring cost sharing for this program.

Award Limits:
Maximum Grant Duration: 3 years
Maximum Grant Award Per Year: $1,250,000
Maximum Total Grant Award: $3,750,000