Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence

Sponsor: William T. Grant Foundation
Solicitation Title: Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence
Funding Amount: Major research grants: $100,000 and $1,000,000 and cover two to four years of support.
Officers’ research grants: $5,000 to $50,000.
Sponsor Deadline: Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Solicitation Link: http://wtgrantfoundation.org/grants/research-grants-improving-use-research-evidence

Overview

The Foundation’s mission is to support research to improve the lives of young people ages 5-25 in the United States. One way that we pursue this mission is by invest-ing in high-quality field-initiated studies on improving the use of research evidence in ways that benefit youth. Studies on improving the use of research evidence should identify, build, and test strategies to ensure that research evidence is used in ways that benefit youth. We welcome ideas from social scientists across a range of disciplines, fields, and methodologies that can advance their own disciplines and fields and reveal insights about ways to improve the production and use of research evidence. Measures also are needed to capture changes in the nature and degree of research use. We welcome investigations about research use in various systems, including justice, child welfare, mental health, and education. Research teams have drawn on existing conceptual and empirical work from political science, communication science, knowledge mobilization, implementation science, organizational psychology and other areas related to the use of research for improvement, impact, and change in research, policy, and practice institutions. Critical perspectives that inform studies’ research questions, methods, and interpretation of findings are also welcome. Broadening the theoretical perspectives used to study ways to improving the usefulness, use, and impact of research evidence may create a new frontier of important research. Proposals for studies on improving the use of research evidence must pursue one of the following lines of inquiry: <ol> <li>Identify or test strategies to improve the use of existing research.</li> <li>Identify or test strategies for producing more useful research evidence. </li> <li>Test the assumption that using high-quality research evidence improves decision making and youth outcomes.</li> </ol>

Other Information:The Foundation does not have a preference for a particular research design or method. We begin application reviews by looking at the research questions or hypotheses. Then we evaluate whether the proposed research designs and methods will provide empirical evidence on those questions. The strongest proposals incorporate data from multiple sources and often involve multidisciplinary teams. Officers’ research grantsOfficers’ research grants on improving the use of research evidence are a separate funding mechanism for smaller projects with budgets ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Some are stand-alone projects; others build off larger projects. The budget should be appropriate for the activities proposed. Projects involving secondary data analysis are typically at the lower end of the budget range, whereas projects involving new data collection and sample recruitment can be at the higher end. Submissions for the Officers’ research grants will be accepted on the January 9, 2020 and August 4, 2020 deadlines. Letters of inquiry for the Officer’s research grants will not be accepted for the May 6, 2020 deadline.Similar to the major grants program, we encourage research projects led by African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian Pacific American researchers. Early career scholars are also encouraged to apply for these grants as a way to build their research programs.

Last Updated: 03/04/2020

RODA ID: 816