Research Grants on Education: Large

Overview

Current application processes are described in the How to Apply section below. Please see the October 2025 Spencer news update from Dr. Nasir and Dr. Bricker for information about how we have changed our processes to respond to the large volume of applications we are currently receiving. Starting in 2026, we are moving to a single cycle of Large Grants per year, but as we have communicated to the field, we will fund more proposals than in past years.   

The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 up through $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. We accept applications once a year.

This program is “field-initiated,” meaning that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. 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. We seek to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse.

We recognize that learning occurs across the life course as well as across settings— from the classroom to the workplace, to family and community contexts and even onto the playing field—any of which may, in the right circumstance, provide the basis for rewarding study that makes significant contributions to the field. We value work that fosters creative and open-minded scholarship, engages in deep inquiry, and examines robust questions related to education. To this end, this program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career. We anticipate that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, amongst others.

Moreover, we expect and welcome methodological diversity in answering pressing questions; thus, we are open to projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including the diverse range of quantitative and qualitative methods, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research, to name a few. We are open to projects that might incorporate data from multiple and varied sources, span a sufficient length of time as to achieve a depth of understanding, or work closely with practitioners or community members over the life of the project. In addition, we welcome proposals submitted by multidisciplinary and multigenerational teams who are positioned to both contribute to the project as well as contribute to the teaching and learning of fellow team members.

Finally, we encourage teams to thoughtfully consider and describe plans regarding the trajectories of their project’s findings, implications, and potential effects, especially how the knowledge may be shared and utilized across the field in practice, policy making, or with broader publics.

Projects proposed may not be longer than 5 years in duration.

PIs and Co-PIs may only hold one active research grant from the Spencer Foundation at one time. PIs and Co-PIs may apply for a new grant while they have an active grant at the Spencer Foundation if the active grant will end before the anticipated start date of the new project. Note that this restriction does not apply to the administering organization; organizations may submit as many proposals as they like as long as they are for different projects and have different research teams.

PIs and Co-PIs may not submit more than one research proposal or preproposal to the Spencer Foundation at a time. This restriction applies to the Small Grants Program, Large Grants Program, Racial Equity Research Grants Program, and Research-Practice Partnership Program. If the PI or any of the Co-PIs currently have a research preproposal or proposal under consideration in any of these programs, they are required to wait until a final decision has been made before they can submit a new preproposal or proposal. Note that an exception to both of these restrictions is the Spencer Vision Grants program. PIs and Co-PIs may apply for a Vision Grant if they have another active research grant from the Spencer Foundation or if they have another Spencer grant proposal or preproposal in review. However, the projects proposed in a Vision Grant proposal and in another Spencer grant program proposal or preproposal must be distinct.

Applications Open: December 10, 2025 
Intent to Apply: February 24, 2026, 12:00 PM Noon (Central Time/North America) 
Full Proposal Deadline: June 23, 2026, 12:00 PM Noon (Central Time/North America)

Awards: The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 to $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. We anticipate awarding grants with budgets across each of the following funding tiers: $125,000 to 250,000; $250,001 to $375,000; and $375,001 to $500,000.