Racial Equity Research Grants

Overview

The Racial Equity Research Grants program supports education research projects that will contribute to understanding and ameliorating racial inequality in education. We are interested in funding studies that aim to understand and disrupt the reproduction and deepening of inequality in education, and which seek to (re)imagine and make new forms of equitable education. Thus, we are interested in research projects that seek to envision educational opportunities in a multiplicity of education systems, levels, settings, and developmental ranges and that reach beyond documenting conditions and paradigms that contribute to persistent racial inequalities.

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 relation to racial equity in education. In this cycle of funding, we will continue to fund scholarship focused on a range of communities and issues with respect to equity. However, we want to especially encourage proposals that focus on Indigenous education and scholarship focused on issues of equity in international contexts. 

As with other Spencer grant programs, this program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not required to be developed around a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or geographic location. We will be accepting applications for projects ranging from one to five years with budgets up to $75,000.

We are interested in proposals at all levels and in all settings of learning, including early childhood,  higher education,  and in schools,  families,  and communities across the world.  We are also interested in studies that seek to understand the situated experiences of minoritized groups, including but not limited to, Black, Latinx, AAPI, and Indigenous communities. In addition, we are interested in studies that focus on those learners who are multiply marginalized, including intersections with English language learners, immigrants, students with disabilities, highly mobile and institutionalized youth  (e.g., foster youth or those in youth prisons),  LGTBQIA+  youth,  and those in rural communities. Finally, we encourage proposals that are reflective of other national and local contexts. We recognize that the experiences of inequality, as well as the histories and structures producing it, will vary.  Thus,  we expect to fund proposals that explore meanings and possibilities of equity, as well as explanations of inequality, in a variety of ways.

• Proposals to the Racial Equity Research Grants program must be for academic research projects that will contribute to understanding and ameliorating racial inequality in education, broadly conceived. 
• PIs and Co-PIs may not submit more than one application for a given deadline in this program.  PIs or Co-PIs cannot have two projects under review in different programs. 
• Proposals for activities other than research are not eligible (e.g., program evaluations, professional development, curriculum development,  scholarships,  capital projects).  Additionally, proposals for research studies focused on areas other than education, are not eligible.
• Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs applying for a Racial Equity Research Grant must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field, or appropriate experience in an education research-related profession.

• Proposed budgets for this program are limited to $75,000 total and may not include indirect cost charges per Spencer’s policy.
• Projects proposed may not be longer than 5 years in duration.

Applications Open
February 16, 2023

Intent to Apply Form Deadline
May 16, 2023 at 12:00pm Noon Central time

Full Proposal Deadline
June 14, 2023 at 12:00pm Noon Central time