The Spencer Foundation was established in 1962 to investigate ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world.
To advance this mission, the foundation is accepting applications for its Small Research Grants Program Statement, which supports education research projects with budgets of $50,000 or less. This program aims to fund academic work that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, and to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse. Historically, grants have supported research projects on a range of topics and disciplines, including education, law, psychology, sociology, economics, history, and anthropology, and that have employed a wide range of research methods. The program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method.
To be eligible, principal investigators and co-PIs must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field, or have appropriate experience in an education research-related profession; PIs also must be affiliated with a college, university, school district, nonprofit research facility, or nonprofit cultural institution that is willing to serve as the fiscal agent if the grant is awarded.
See the Spencer Foundation website for complete program guidelines and application instructions.