Introduction:
The Spencer Foundation is a U.S.-based philanthropic organisation dedicated to supporting high-quality research in education.

General description:
This programme supports research projects in education that are broadly conceived and initiated by the field (i.e., not tied to a specific topic, discipline, design, method or location). Budget requests may be up to USD 50,000 and projects may span from one to five years. Eligible projects may come from multiple disciplinary or methodological perspectives, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, ethnographic, historical, computational modelling, design-based research, participatory methods and more. The programme accepts applications twice per year.

Objectives:

• Support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research relevant to pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education.

• Develop new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse.

• Recognise that learning occurs across the life course and in varied contexts (classroom, workplace, family, community, etc.).

Eligibility / Requirements:

• Proposals must be for research projects that study education; activities that are not research (e.g., programme evaluations without significant research component, creation of professional-development programmes or curricula without a research component) are not eligible.

• The Principal Investigator (PI) and any Co-PI must hold an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field. Graduate students may participate in the team but cannot serve as PI or Co-PI.

• The administering organisation must be a non-profit or public/governmental institution (e.g., public or private universities, school districts, research facilities, non-profit organisations).

• Proposals are accepted from both U.S. and international applicants; however, all proposals must be submitted in English and budgets proposed in U.S. dollars.

• Budget must not exceed USD 50,000 total; indirect cost charges are not permitted under this programme policy.

• Project duration may not exceed five years.

• PIs/Co-PIs may only hold one active Spencer research grant at a time. Also, they may not submit more than one research proposal concurrently to Spencer's research programmes.

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