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Although today much of the work to bring research to bear on important decisions that shape our lives and our environment is still focused largely on disseminating findings and communicating with those who will listen, we’re encouraged that a movement is growing to foster engagement and build meaningful, collaborative relationships.

These grants will support activities to strengthen the organizational infrastructure of nonprofit organizations in the five boroughs of New York City that provide direct services to young people ages 5 to 25. The long-term goal of the program is to help build stronger, more stable youth-serving organizations that will reduce inequality in youth outcomes.

The Institutional Challenge Grant has provided my colleagues and I at the Cornell Cooperative Extension-Tompkins County with an opportunity to expand an existing working relationship with researchers from Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology and work in partnership to develop strategies for mitigating the impact of the opioid epidemic on families and communities in upstate […]

When well executed, research-practice partnerships can be powerful mechanisms for producing relevant and useful knowledge and facilitating its integration into policy and practice to improve youth outcomes. But without taking intentional steps to avoid common hurdles, it’s likely that many partnerships will fail to fulfill this potential. In Five Ways RPPs Can Fail and How […]

Improving the use of research evidence in policy and practice is a challenge that implicates researchers across social science disciplines and methodological backgrounds. Here, Vivian Tseng outlines the Foundation’s call for proposals on research to illuminate strategies for improving research use in ways that can improve outcomes for young people. Underscoring how pursuing questions related […]

Scholars receive $350,000 to execute rigorous five-year research plans that stretch their skills and knowledge into new disciplines, content areas, or methods. As they commence their projects, they build mentoring relationships with experts in areas pertinent to their development, and further their research and professional development through annual retreats and workshops with fellow Scholars, Foundation staff, and other senior researchers.

We are proud to announce three new grants to support research on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and two new grants to support research on improving the use of research evidence in policy and practice. Approved at the Foundation’s spring board meeting, these grants will build theory and empirical evidence in our two focus areas. […]

The Foundation occasionally supplements its support for empirical research with targeted capacity-building grants. Two new awards will support a convening of grantees in our focus area on reducing inequality and continue our support of the The National Network of Education Research–Practice Partnerships. Reducing Inequality 2019 Grantee Meeting & Support Hillary Oravec, Youth Collaboratory This grant […]

Photovoice provides a platform for members of communities to share their narratives and articulate the assets and needs of their neighborhoods. This method can enable youth to promote critical conversations and move their neighbors toward collective identification of problems and solutions.

In April 2019, the Foundation held a webinar, hosted by Institutional Challenge Grant selection committee members Adam Gamoran and Michael Gottfredson and senior program officer Kim DuMont, for a discussion of how applicants of the program might focus proposals for institutional change. In the course of the broadcast, we also covered the program’s goals, described […]

The William T. Grant and Spencer Foundations are delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 Institutional Challenge Grant competition.

How can researchers find the motivation to continue to produce knowledge worth considering? And how can we, as supporters of research, best sustain our mission to support them?

In Studying the Use of Research Evidence: A Review of Methods, Drew Gitomer and Kevin Crouse highlight measures and methods from a range of methodological traditions that have been employed by researchers to assess the use of research evidence in disparate policy and practice domains, including education, child welfare, and public health. The report outlines […]