Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence

Overview

This program supports research on strategies focused on improving the use, usefulness, and impact of evidence in ways that benefit young people ages 5-25 in the United States. We welcome impact studies that test strategies for improving research use as well as whether improving research use leads to improved youth outcomes. We also welcome descriptive studies that reveal the strategies, mechanisms, or conditions for improving research use. Finally, we welcome measurement studies that explore how to construct and implement valid and reliable measures of research use.

We are particularly interested in research on ways to improve the use of research evidence by state and local policymakers, mid-level managers, and intermediaries. These decision-makers play important roles in deciding which programs, practices, and tools to adopt; deliberating ways to improve existing services; shaping the conditions for implementation; and making resource allocation decisions.

We invite studies from a range of disciplines, fields, and methods, and we encourage investigations into various youth-serving systems, including justice, housing, child welfare, mental health, and education. Previous studies have drawn on conceptual and empirical work from political science, communication science, knowledge mobilization, implementation science, and organizational psychology, among other areas.

Finally, we welcome critical perspectives that inform studies’ research questions, methods, and interpretation of findings.

We welcome studies that pursue one of three aims:
1.    Building, identifying, or testing ways to improve the use of existing research evidence
This may include:
-    Studies of strategies, mechanisms, or conditions that foster more routine and constructive uses of existing research evidence by decision-makers.
-    Studies that test the effects of deliberate efforts to improve routine and beneficial uses of research in decision-making.

2.    Building, identifying, or testing ways to facilitate the production of new research evidence that responds to decision-makers’ needs
This may include:
-    Studies to identify strategies for altering the incentive structures or organizational cultures of research institutions so that researchers conduct more practice- or policy-relevant studies and are rewarded for producing research that decision-makers consider useful.
-    Studies to identify the relationships and organizational structures that lead to the prioritization of decision-makers’ needs in developing research agendas.
-    Studies that examine ways to optimize organized collaborations among researchers, decision-makers, intermediaries, and other stakeholders to benefit youth.

3.    Testing whether and under what conditions using research evidence improves decision-making and youth outcomes
This may include:
-    Studies that examine the impact of research use on youth outcomes and the conditions under which using research evidence improves outcomes.
-    The notion that using research will improve youth outcomes is a long-standing assumption, but there is little evidence to validate it. We suspect that the impact of research on outcomes may depend on a number of conditions, including the quality of the research and the quality of research use. One hypothesis is that the quality of the research and the quality of research use will work synergistically to yield strong outcomes for youth.
-    Studies to identify and test other conditions under which using research evidence improves youth outcomes.

These research interests call for a range of methods, including experimental or observational research designs, comparative case studies, or systematic reviews.

Eligible Studies
•    Only studies that 1) align with the stated research interests of this program and 2) relate to the outcomes of young people between the ages of 5 and 25 in the United States are eligible for consideration.
•    We do not support non-research activities such as program implementation and operational costs, or make contributions to building funds, fundraising drives, endowment funds, general operating budgets, or scholarships. Applications for ineligible projects are screened out without further review.

Major research grants
$100,000 to $1,000,000 over 2-4 years, including up to 15% indirect costs.

Officers’ research grants
$25,000–$50,000 over 1-2 years, including up to 15% indirect costs.

2025 Deadlines
Major Research Grants: January 8  |  May 7  |  August 6    
Officers' Research Grants: January 8  |  August 6

For a list of recent grantees for these programs click here (linked embeded in text on announcement)

https://wtgrantfoundation.org/new-research-grants-to-build-theory-and-evidence-in-our-focus-areas-spring-2024?utm_source=WilliamTGrant+Website+Signup&utm_campaign=79d98b68cf-October+Grants_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a590baf297-79d98b68cf-1204796553