Expanding K-12 Resources for AI Education (DCL)

Overview:

Invites supplemental funding requests to current NSF awardees in certain NSF directorates to support the expansion of K-12 resources for AI education.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has made extensive investments in fundamental research, center-scale institutes, technology transition, outreach, and education related to the science and applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) seeks to build upon these investments to advance the goals of the Executive Order on Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth by providing resources for K-12 AI education. To advance the goals of the executive order, NSF will accept supplemental funding proposals from existing awardees with K-12 AI or computer science education experience to refine, scale, evaluate, and/or implement established K-12 activities. Further information about eligible awardees specific to their NSF Directorate can be found at the end of this DCL. Supplement proposals should be for specific and focused educational efforts at the K-12 level that address age-appropriate AI education/literacy, and/or the use of technologies in AI education to facilitate adoption by educational partners. Activities with the potential to be implemented in classrooms within 12 months of the supplement award date will be prioritized for funding.

The proposed efforts should align with one or more of the following themes:

• Theme 1: Teacher professional development — extend capacity and reach of teacher professional development programs for AI education that equip K-12 teachers to incorporate AI education into their existing lesson plans/curricula and/or prepare teachers to offer new AI course content or classes.
• Theme 2: Curricula and instructional materials — refine, evaluate, and/or scale activities for K-12 students that cover AI topics and/or that provide instruction on how to use specific AI tools to solve real-world challenges. Materials should be connected to particular AI concepts, essential knowledge and/or skills, and tied to a specific grade level.
• Theme 3: Technology and tools — refine, evaluate, and/or scale infrastructure, tools, or services that bring AI into the K-12 classroom or in other instructional settings to improve teaching and learning in any subject.
• Theme 4: Networks — design/develop/expand organizational structures that provide resources and facilitate communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing for AI education among researchers and K-12 education practitioners within and across their communities.

Compelling proposals will clearly describe a timeline for the work and demonstrate how implementation and impacts of existing efforts will be enhanced by the requested supplemental support. Target outcomes should highlight resources that educators can successfully use “out of the box,” without need for sustained external personnel, engineers, programmers, or other technical support staff. The project should demonstrate the capacity for longer-term sustainable impact through a plan for implementation with one or more education partners, e.g., school system(s), education nonprofit organization(s), museum(s), other public or private providers of K-12 education services, or relevant online repositories. Proposals should detail how the proposed implementation plan enables the broader dissemination of those products.

Depending on the objectives of the existing award, the original team may lack an educator or education researcher with expertise in K-12 education. Proposals for supplemental funding under this DCL may request support for additional appropriate personnel.

The proposed activities should connect to existing AI education efforts, frameworks around AI education, and/or the use of AI tools.

PARTICIPATING NSF PROGRAMS

• Directorate for Computer & Information Science and Engineering--Awardees whose projects have significant K-12 AI or Computer Science education components are eligible to apply for a supplement. Prospective CISE awardees interested in applying for supplemental funding in response to this DCL must contact a CISE PO through the CISE Computing Education Research program, contact e-mail, [email protected].
• Directorate for Engineering--Awardees from Engineering Research Centers (ERCs), Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRCs), as well as from the IUSE/PFE:RED, PFE:RIEF, RET, and REU programs, may apply for a supplement to their active award to extend activities relevant to K-12 AI education. PIs considering submission of a supplement request are strongly encouraged to consult with their managing Program Officer to ensure program fit.
• Directorate for Geosciences--Awardees from Geosciences programs must contact their cognizant program officer.
• Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences--Awardees from MPS centers, institutes, and facilities, as well as from DMS programs, are eligible to apply for a supplement to their award if that award includes established activities in K-12 AI education. Prospective applicants are required to contact their cognizant program officer prior to submission.
• Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences--All awardees of SBE grants are eligible to apply for a supplement to their award if that award includes established activities in K-12 that connect to existing AI education efforts, frameworks around AI education, and/or the use of AI tools. Prospective applicants are required to contact their cognizant program officer prior to submission.
• Directorate for STEM Education--Awardees from any EDU program with projects that have existing K-12 AI education components are eligible to apply for a supplement. Prospective applicants are required to contact their cognizant program officer prior to submission and send a 1-page project summary by email.
• Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships--Awardees from the TIP Directorate are encouraged to contact their cognizant program officer.

Other information:

COGNIZANT PROGRAM OFFICERS: The participating Directorates may prioritize different types of K-12 educational activity. Therefore, prospective PIs are strongly encouraged to consult with the cognizant program officer of their existing award prior to submitting a supplemental funding request, and to contact an NSF AI in Education and Workforce (AIEW) Program Officer at [email protected]. To help ensure timely processing, PIs should inform their NSF point of contact by e-mail when the proposal is submitted.

FUNDING LIMITS: Budget requests may be up to 20% of the original award budget with a maximum of $300,000, but PIs are strongly advised to consult with their cognizant program officer or an NSF AI in Education and Workforce (AIEW) program officer at this alias: [email protected] to understand specific funding targets. The budget request must be accompanied by budget justifications corresponding to the efforts designed to lead to successful implementation.

ELIGIBILITY: Please refer to the list below of NSF Directorates and their respective programs participating in this DCL.

DEADLINES: Consideration of supplemental support requests submitted after December 1, 2025, is subject to continuation of this funding opportunity.

GIF for Researchers

Overview:

We seek out innovations with the greatest potential to improve the lives of millions of people living in poverty. The Global Innovation Fund finds and funds innovations with the greatest potential to transform the lives of people living on less than $5 a day. Since 2014, we have proudly backed a diverse portfolio of innovations tackling a range of development challenges. We use our funding to support innovators to prove out the impact of their solution and achieve greater scale.

At GIF, we believe that innovation can come from anyone, anywhere, and we especially encourage applications from developing countries themselves. Any type of organisation may apply. This includes social enterprises, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations, government agencies, and research institutions in any country. Individual innovators, entrepreneurs or researchers must apply through an affiliated organisation.

Evidence is essential to innovation and we are committed to promoting smart, evidence-led investing. Research plays a central role: as a source of innovative ideas, and as a tool for assessing their impact, cost-effectiveness and scalability. We are very interested in supporting policy reforms that could improve the equity or efficiency of public sector performance. We support investments in public, private and non-profit activities, using all available financial instruments.

GIF construes “innovation” broadly, to include behavioural nudges and organisational innovations as well as hardware and software. Some examples include:

• The Behavioural Insight Team’s work on improving tax compliance
• A training system for skills and entrepreneurship developed by Educate!, an Ugandan organisation
• Segovia’s system for facilitating cash transfers to vulnerable populations
• Simprint’s rugged biometric identification system
• Sparkmeter’s technologies to promote access to electricity

The role of research and evidence at GIF
Evidence is at the heart of GIF’s staged approach to investment. GIF takes well-informed risks in pursuit of high social benefits. To do so, we embed learning into each investment. We want to know things like: does this innovation improve poor people’s well-being? How? Under what conditions? By how much? Does it promote gender equality? Is it cost-effective? How sensitive is demand to income and price? The answers will guide decisions by GIF and others on whether and how to scale up the innovations.

Types of research supported
While many of GIF’s projects involve randomised controlled trials, GIF is not dogmatic on research methodology. We seek the techniques — or combination of techniques — that will best address the questions at hand. Our smaller, pilot-stage projects focus on proof of concept, and might, for instance, include field-testing for efficacy or assessing household demand for a new product. Test and transition projects generally aim at rigorously assessing impact or cost-effectiveness, together with getting insight on factors affecting further scale-up, or replication in other settings.

Criteria for funding
Innovation: Research should promote real world implementation of an innovative approach to an important development challenge. Innovations are things that make it easier, faster, less costly, or otherwise more feasible to achieve a development result than current practice. This includes testing to see if a result demonstrated in one context applies in others.

Potential impact: GIF is looking for innovations that make a big difference. These are innovations that, if scaled up or replicated, could make a substantial difference to millions of lives, or perhaps a transformative difference to hundreds of thousands. Target innovations have social benefits that far outweigh social costs.

Poverty focus: Target innovations are those that can improve the lives of those living at $5/day, and especially those subsisting on less than $2/day. This criterion is applied at the level of the beneficiary. So while GIF works mostly in low-income countries or provinces, it could consider, for instance, innovations that help impoverished slum-dwellers in a middle-income country.

Potential for and pathway to scale: GIF wants to support ideas that scale up. There are many potential paths to scale, including:

• Organic growth of a for-profit or non-profit organisation
• Demonstration of an innovation that gets taken up by the public sector, e.g. in health or education delivery
• Creation of an open-source innovation that is spontaneously emulated

Researchers are not necessarily expected to be the agents who scale up an innovation. However, research questions should be framed so that the answers inform decisions about whether and how to scale up the innovation. At the pilot stage, applicants should be able to specify one or more potential pathways to scale, but GIF recognises that there may be considerable uncertainty at this stage. At the Test & Transition stage, GIF expects applicants to specify potential pathways to scale, and more favourably views applicants with progress towards securing support from partners for scaling the innovation, should it test successfully.

The quality of the team is an important criterion for selection. Teams should be able to demonstrate strong knowledge of the problems they are addressing and an understanding of the setting in which the innovation will be tested. GIF encourages applications from women and from researchers and organisations based in developing countries.

Measuring success and sharing lessons learned. GIF is interested in assessing the causal impact of innovations on outcomes closely related to people’s well-being. GIF is also keenly interested in cost-effectiveness. GIF looks for a commitment to share results and lessons. While GIF’s research goal is improving people’s lives, not publication for its own sake, GIF encourages publication of results in academic journals where appropriate.

No basic or laboratory research. GIF doesn’t support theoretical research or laboratory-based research.

Solicitation limitations:

Applicants can only submit one initial application for each project or idea, but an organisation may submit more than one application at a time if each application is for a different innovation.

Other information:

Award amounts:

• Pilot grant: up to $230,000
• Test and transition grant: up to $2.3 million
• Team up with an innovation being implemented by a government, business, or NGO: up to $15 million

Deadlines: Our open application window opens four times a year – in March, June, September and December.
Apply for funding link
FAQs link

Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System

Overview:

Arnold Ventures (AV) is a nonpartisan philanthropy whose core mission is to invest in evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. AV focuses on correcting system failures in the United States through evidence-based solutions.  AVs’ Criminal Justice Initiative seeks to generate new evidence to inform policies that will make communities safer and make the criminal justice system more fair and effective. 

This Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI) seeks letters of interest to conduct causal research projects of policies, practices, and interventions related to community safety and the criminal justice system. 

Looking for a research idea? Check out this list of recently-passed policies in the crime/criminal justice space. 

To be eligible to submit through this funding opportunity, research projects must adhere to the following criteria: 

• Propose a strong causal research design, which can reliably and validly isolate the treatment effect of a policy, practice, or intervention. Examples of such research designs include difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variable, and randomization. 
• The policy, practice, or intervention being tested is in the United States. 
• Outcomes include measures of real-world behaviors (such as crime rates or criminal justice involvement), as opposed to measures collected in a controlled lab setting or measures of perceptions. 

Submissions are welcome across all issues of crime and criminal justice that meet the above criteria. The ultimate goal of this RFP is to build credible evidence on policies, practices, and interventions that can improve crime and justice system outcomes and grow the number of policies and practices rigorously shown to produce improvements in community safety and to make the justice system fairer and more effective. 

We will prioritize studies that: 

• Focus on interventions where there is a clear path to federal and/or state policy adoption or implementation.  Is there a state or federal policy lever available to scale this intervention? 
• Outcomes are measured using administrative data, where they exist. 
• Are led by researchers who have not previously received funding from Arnold Ventures as the primary or principal investigator, or are early-career/junior researchers (those who received their PhD in the past 6 years).

Other information:

We aim to expand the pool of researchers doing causal research in the criminal justice system.  Thus, we are seeking applicants from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of experiences and perspectives.  We strongly encourage researchers who are new to causal research, including those who have not previously received funding from Arnold Ventures or who have been impacted by the systems we are seeking to change, to participate in this funding opportunity.  All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, military/veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Rapid Response: Reinvesting in Racial and Indigenous Health Equity Research

Overview:

The purpose of this call for proposals (CFP) is to meet the current moment by supporting timely, actionable health equity research that has been interrupted by shifts in federal funding. We will award up to $5 million for Rapid Response Research grants to help at least partially offset federal funding losses to existing research.

Rapid Response Research funding is exclusively available to applicants who have already received federal funding (e.g., from the NIH, CDC, NSF) for their health equity research, but have since had their funding partially or fully rescinded due to federal administrative actions. While we will not re-scrutinize the scientific merits of projects that have lost federal funding, our intent is to support research consistent with Evidence for Action’s mission to advance community-centered, action-oriented racial and Indigenous health equity research that focuses on structural solutions that are innovative, push beyond the status quo, and target root causes. 

E4A primarily funds social science-oriented and applied research projects. Biomedical, clinical, and bench science projects are not eligible. We will prioritize research focused on structural solutions to the social determinants of health over those related to specific disease diagnoses or treatment.

Solicitation limitations:

Applicants must have lost federal funding for their health equity research project to be eligible to apply (those who have submitted an application for federal funding that will no longer be reviewed due to executive orders, are not eligible). Documentation demonstrating how the research project has been interrupted is required (e.g., a termination letter, stop work order, emails or other communications directly from the federal funding agency).  

Other information:

August 27, 2025 (2–3 p.m. ET): Optional applicant webinar. Registration is required.

Advancing STEM Education Through Data-Driven Research

Overview:

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Grants Program seeks proposals for Research Grants. The AERA Grants Program provides Research Grants to faculty at institutions of higher education, postdoctoral researchers, and other doctoral level scholars. The aim of the program is to advance fundamental knowledge of relevance to STEM education policy, foster significant science using education data, and build research capacity in education and learning. The program supports highly competitive studies using rigorous quantitative methods to examine large-scale, education-related data. Since 1991, this AERA Program has been vital to both research and training at early career stages.   

The Grants Program encourages the use of major data sets from multiple and wide-ranging sources. It emphasizes the advanced statistical analysis of data sets from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other federal agencies. The program also supports studies using large-scale international data systems (e.g., PISA, PIRLS, or TIMMS) that benefit from U.S. federal government support. In addition, statewide longitudinal administrative data systems (SLDS), other data systems (e.g., school district level), or national studies (e.g., ABCD Study) supported by or enhanced through federal grants are also eligible for consideration. Federal or state administrative information that further expands the analytic capacity of the research is appropriate for inclusion. The thrust of the analysis needs to be generalizable to a national, state, or population or subgroups within the sample that the dataset represents.

The Grants Program is open to field-initiated research and welcomes proposals that:

1. Support fundamental research using extant data and quantitative methods on STEM learning and learning environments;
2. Cultivate rigorous scientific research using big data and data linkages, with an emphasis on big administrative and other federal, state longitudinal data system (SLDS) and local record systems;
3. Promote the use and study of machine learning and artificial intelligence in STEM research; or
4. undertake replication research of major findings or major studies using large-scale, federally supported or enhanced data.

The Grants Program encourages proposals across the life span and contexts of education and learning of relevance to STEM policy and practice. The research may focus on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to such issues as student achievement in STEM, analysis of STEM education policies, contextual factors in education, educational participation and persistence (pre-kindergarten through graduate school), early childhood education and development, postsecondary education, and the STEM workforce and transitions.

Solicitation limitations:

An applicant may submit only one proposal to the AERA Grants Program for review at any one time. Due to the large volume of applications received, the AERA Program is unable to provide individual feedback on unfunded proposals. 

Research Grants are available for faculty at institutions of higher education, postdoctoral researchers, and other doctoral level scholars. Proposals are encouraged from the full range of education research fields and other fields and disciplines engaged in education-related research, including economics, political science, psychology, sociology, demography, statistics, public policy, psychometrics, and discipline-based education research (DBER). Applicants for this one-year or two-year, non-renewable award must have received their doctoral degree at the start of the award. Applicants may be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents. Non-U.S. citizens affiliated with a U.S. university or institution are also eligible to apply. 

Researchers who have previously received Research Grants through the AERA Grants Program (as a PI or CoPI) may not apply for a Research Grant. However, applicants who have received an AERA Dissertation Grant are eligible to apply for a Research Grant. Dissertation Grant recipients must complete the Dissertation Grant before applying for a Research Grant.

Other information:

Awards for Research Grants are up to $25,000 for 1 year projects, or up to $35,000 for 2 year projects. In accordance with AERA's agreement with the funding agencies, institutions may not charge indirect costs or overhead on these awards.

Informational Webinar: Applicants are encouraged to attend the informational webinar to learn more about the AERA Grants Program and discuss the application process. It will be held on Wednesday, September 10, at 2:00pm ET. A recording will be available shortly after the webinar.

Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL)

Overview:

The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program is committed to funding research and practice, with continued focus on investigating a range of informal STEM learning (ISL) experiences and environments that make lifelong learning a reality. This program seeks proposals that center engagement, broadening participation, and belonging, and further the well-being of individuals and communities who have been and continue to be excluded, under-served, or underrepresented in STEM along several dimensions. The current solicitation encourages proposals from institutions and organizations that serve public audiences, and specifically focus on public engagement with and understanding of STEM, including community STEM; public participation in scientific research (PPSR); science communication; intergenerational STEM engagement; and STEM media.

Projects funded by AISL should contribute to research and practice that further illuminates informal STEM learning's role in engagement, broadening participation, and belonging in STEM; personal and educational success in STEM; advancing public engagement in scientific discovery; fostering interest in STEM careers; creating and enhancing the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; improving community vibrancy; and/or enhancing science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes.

The AISL Program funds five types of projects: (1) Synthesis; (2) Conference; (3) Partnership Development and Planning; (4) Integrating Research and Practice; and (5) Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM.

AISL GOALS FOR PROPOSALS
This section describes six goals that the AISL Program views as essential across its funding portfolio. PIs are encouraged to consider these goals to help guide their proposed work. Note that all proposals must explicitly address the first three goals: (1) Learning in Informal Experiences and Environments, (2) Advancing the Knowledge Base of Informal STEM Learning, and (3) Broadening Participation in STEM. Certain project types (described below) may require addressing additional goals. Unless specified, submitters can use their judgment and determine the extent to which AISL Goals #4-6 apply to their project.

1. Learning STEM in Informal Experiences and Environments (required of all proposals)
2. Advancing the Knowledge Base of Informal STEM Learning (required of all proposals)
3. Broadening Participation in STEM (required of all proposals)
4. Intentionally Community/Practitioner Driven
5. Professional Capacity Building & Informal STEM Infrastructure
6. Support Learners' Participation in and Understanding of STEM practices

Other information:

Anticipated Funding Amount: Limits for funding requests and duration of AISL proposals under this solicitation are as follows: 
(1) Synthesis projects: $100,000 to $500,000 with a duration up to three years;
 (2) Conference projects: $75,000 to $250,000 with a duration up to two years; 
(3) Partnership Development and Planning projects: $50,000 to $150,000 with a duration of one to one and one-half years; 
(4) Integrating Research and Practice projects: $250,000 to $2,000,000 with a duration of two to five years; and 
(5) Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM projects: $1,000,000 to $3,500,000 with a duration of two to five years.

Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Directorate for STEM Education (IUSE: EDU)

Overview:

Note: This call announcement for Institutional and Community Transformation (Capacity-Building and Level 1) proposals and Engaged Student Learning (Level 1) proposals only.

All projects supported by IUSE: EDU must: 

• Demonstrate a strong rationale for project objectives or incorporate and build on educational practices that are demonstrably effective 
• Contribute to the development of exemplary undergraduate STEM education 
• Add to the body of knowledge about what works in undergraduate STEM education and the conditions that lead to improved STEM teaching and learning 
• Measure project progress and achievement of project goals 

To accomplish these goals, IUSE: EDU projects may focus their activities at any level, including the student, faculty, institutional or community levels. Development, propagation, adaptation, and transferability of evidence-based practices are also important considerations. Projects should consider designing materials and practices for use in a wide variety of institutions or institutional types. Topics of interest to the IUSE: EDU program include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Development and study of the efficacy of innovative teaching and learning practices and resources 
• Development, testing, and dissemination of instruments for measuring student outcomes 
• Efforts to increase the diversity of the STEM workforce including K-12 teachers and/or the faculty and institutions engaged in work to improve undergraduate STEM education 
• Faculty professional development to increase the use of evidence-based teaching practices 
• Implementation of and research on sustained change processes involved in adopting evidence-based and effective instruction within or across departments, disciplines, or institutions 
• Efforts to achieve STEM educational goals through innovative partnerships, for example with community organizations, local, regional, or national industries, centers for teaching and learning, professional societies, or libraries, 
• Propagating and sustaining transformative and effective STEM teaching and learning through institutional practices or involvement of professional societies 

The IUSE: EDU program features two tracks:

Track 1: Engaged Student Learning
The Engaged Student Learning (ESL) track focuses on design, development, and research projects that involve the creation, exploration, or implementation of tools, resources, and models. Projects must show high potential to increase student engagement and learning in STEM. Projects may focus directly on students or indirectly serve students through faculty professional development or research on teaching and learning. Whatever the focus, all projects should be both evidence-based and knowledge-generating, with well-developed plans to study student experiences and evaluate student outcomes. 
 
Track 2: Institutional and Community Transformation
The Institutional and Community Transformation (ICT) track funds innovative work applying evidence-based practices that improve undergraduate STEM education and research on the organizational change processes involved in implementing evidence-based practices. The emphasis of this track is on systemic change that may be measured at the departmental, institutional, or multi-institutional level, or across communities of STEM educators and/or educational researchers.

Solicitation limitations:

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 3 
An individual may serve as PI or co-PI on no more than three IUSE: EDU proposals submitted during the period of October 1 through September 30. This eligibility constraint will be strictly enforced. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, proposals will be accepted based on earliest date and time of proposal submission (i.e., the first three proposals will be accepted and the remainder will be returned without review). No exceptions will be made.

Other information:

Awards:
ESL Level 1 projects have a maximum award of $400,000 and a maximum duration of three years.

ICT Level 1 proposals have a maximum award size of $400,000 and a maximum duration of three years. 

ICT Capacity-Building proposals may be submitted as individual or collaborative projects. The maximum award size is $200,000 for a single institution proposal or $400,000 for a multi-institution proposal. The maximum duration of both single and multi-institutional proposals is two years.

EDU program team will host webinars in which key features and expectations of the IUSE: EDU program will be discussed. Information about the webinars will be posted to the IUSE: EDU program webpage.

Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System

Overview:

Arnold Ventures (AV) is a nonpartisan philanthropy whose core mission is to invest in evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. AV focuses on correcting system failures in the United States through evidence-based solutions. AVs’ Criminal Justice Initiative seeks to generate new evidence to inform policies that will make communities safer and make the criminal justice system more fair and effective.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI) seeks letters of interest to conduct causal research projects of policies, practices, and interventions related to community safety and the criminal justice system.

Looking for a research idea? Check out this list of recently-passed policies in the crime/criminal justice space.

To be eligible to submit through this funding opportunity, research projects must adhere to the following criteria:

• Propose a strong causal research design, which can reliably and validly isolate the treatment effect of a policy, practice, or intervention. Examples of such research designs include difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variable, and randomization.
• The policy, practice, or intervention being tested is in the United States.
• Outcomes include measures of real-world behaviors (such as crime rates or criminal justice involvement), as opposed to measures collected in a controlled lab setting or measures of perceptions.

Submissions are welcome across all issues of crime and criminal justice that meet the above criteria. The ultimate goal of this RFP is to build credible evidence on policies, practices, and interventions that can improve crime and justice system outcomes and grow the number of policies and practices rigorously shown to produce improvements in community safety and to make the justice system fairer and more effective.

We will prioritize studies that:

• Focus on interventions where there is a clear path to federal and/or state policy adoption or implementation. Is there a state or federal policy lever available to scale this intervention?
• Outcomes are measured using administrative data, where they exist.
• Are led by researchers who have not previously received funding from Arnold Ventures as the primary or principal investigator, or are early-career/junior researchers (those who received their PhD in the past 6 years).

Other information:

We ask interested researchers to submit a letter of interest for AV consideration (maximum of three pages). Applicants whose letters are reviewed favorably, based on the eligibility and prioritization criteria above, will be invited to submit a full proposal (full proposals must be invited). There is no deadline for submitting a letter of interest. 

Arnold Ventures anticipates that project budgets will depend on a variety of factors, including the complexity of the data acquisition and analysis plans, the number of study sites, and the study timeline. While there is no budget ceiling or fixed period of performance for applications received under this RFP, we expect to support projects that align with a typical CJI research project that has a median budget of $500,000 spread over 3-4 years.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration (REI)

Overview:

The Russell Sage Foundation’s program on Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration supports innovative investigator-initiated research that examines the roles of race, ethnicity, nativity, legal status —and their interactions with each other and other social categories—in the social, economic, and political outcomes for immigrants, U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities, and native-born whites.

RSF encourages multi-disciplinary perspectives and methods that both strengthen the data, theory, and methods of social science research and improve our understanding of how to foster the ideals of a pluralist society. Proposals may focus on any one or more of the issues—race, and/or ethnicity, and/or immigration.

RSF prioritizes analyses that make use of newly available data or demonstrate novel uses of existing data. We support original data collection when a project is focused on important program priorities, projects that conduct survey or field experiments and qualitative studies. RSF encourages methodological variety and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Proposed projects must have well-developed conceptual frameworks and rigorous research designs. Analytical models must be well-specified and research methods must be appropriate.

RSF priorities do not include analyses of health or mental health outcomes or health behaviors as these are priorities for other funders. For the same reason, RSF seldom supports studies focused on educational processes or curricular issues but does prioritize analyses of inequalities in student achievement or educational attainment.

The kinds of questions that are of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Racial and Ethnic Diversity, Intergroup Relations, and Social Inclusion 
• Immigration Policy and Immigrant Integration Policies 
• The Role of Legal Status in Immigrant Outcomes
• Social Movements and Responses to Diversity 
• The Politics of Racial and Ethnic Competition and Coalition Building 
• Criminal and Civil Justice in Law Enforcement 
• History, Race, Immigration, and the Law

Other information:

Letter of Inquiry is required. A brief letter of inquiry (LOI; four-page maximum excluding references) must precede a full proposal to determine whether the proposed project is in line with the Foundation's program priorities and available funds. 

Funding can be used for research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time for conducting research and writing up results. Trustee Grants are capped at $200,000, including 15% indirect costs, over a two-year period. Presidential Awards are capped at $50,000 (no indirect costs) over a two-year period. However, when research projects have special needs for gathering data (e.g., qualitative research or survey experiments), gaining access to proprietary or restricted-use data, or when the proposal budget includes salary support for multiple assistant professor PIs, applicants may request up to $75,000 (no indirect costs).

Immigration and Immigrant Integration

Overview:

RSF and the Carnegie Corporation invite proposals that will strengthen the theory, methods, and empirical knowledge about the effects of race, citizenship, legal status, and the interplay of politics and policy on immigrant outcomes. Because of limitations in government statistics, researchers are curating and analyzing data from both public and private sources (e.g., specialized surveys, administrative sources from tax, social security and citizenship and immigration services, and social media data), and collecting their own data to measure the integration of the foreign-born and their children.

Many of the questions listed below are difficult to answer because of data limitations regarding age and time of arrival, time spent in the U.S., legal status at present and upon entry, visa type, parents’ and grandparents’ place of birth. Thus, we welcome proposals to improve the measurement of immigrant integration over time and across generations. We are especially interested in creative uses of administrative and other data sources that enhance our ability to identify immigrants by generation and legal status. We are open to the study of historical events which give insight into contemporary immigrant integration. 

Examples of the kinds of topics and questions that are of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Legal Status
• Naturalization, Citizenship, and Civic Engagement
• Mixed-Ancestry, Ethnic Identity, and Integration
• Race, Religion, Legacies of Exclusion, and Inequality
• Politics, Political Culture, and Public Policy

We are particularly interested in analyses that make use of newly available data or demonstrate novel uses of existing data. We also support original data collection, such as field experiments, in-depth qualitative interviews, and ethnographies. RSF encourages methodological variety and inter-disciplinary collaboration. All proposals must have well-developed conceptual frameworks and research designs. Analytical models must be specified, and research questions and hypotheses (where applicable) must be clearly stated.

Other information:

Letter of Inquiry is required. Applications for research grants must be preceded by a brief letter of inquiry (4 pages max. excluding references) to determine whether our present interests and funds permit consideration of a proposal. We do not consider unsolicited proposals unless otherwise specified in a request for proposals.

Funds can support research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time. Trustee Grants are capped at $200,000, including 15 percent indirect costs, over a two-year period. Presidential Awards are capped at $50,000 (no indirect costs), but at $75,000 (no indirect costs) when the proposed project has special data gathering (e.g., qualitative research) or gaining access to restricted-use data.