The William T. Grant Foundation invests in high-quality research focused on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and improving the use of research evidence in decisions that affect young people in the United States.
Featured Funding Opportunities
Research Grants on Reducing Inequality
The online application is now open. The next deadline for applications is January 11, 2023.
Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence
The online application is now open. The next deadline for applications is January 11, 2023.
William T. Grant Scholars Program
The online application is currently closed. The next deadline for applications will be in September of 2023. Updated application guidelines will be available soon.
Institutional Challenge Grant
The online application is currently closed. The next deadline for applications will be in September of 2023. Updated application guidelines will be available early 2023.
The Digest: Issue 7, Winter 2021/22
Opening the Black Box: Overcoming Obstacles to Studying Causal Mechanisms in Research on Reducing Inequality
Although many of today’s disparities have their roots in policies or actions initiated generations ago, there is much we can do today. And new research on causal mechanisms can point the way forward, illuminate how and why larger efforts succeed or fail, and identify more effective means of bringing about improved outcomes for our nation’s youth.
Contending with Complexity: How Two Grantees are Approaching Studies of Mechanisms
Our conversation not only shows how researchers are confronting the challenges of studying mechanisms on the ground, it also reflects the Foundation’s openness to a variety of methodological approaches to understanding mechanisms.
Research on Research Use: Building Theory, Empirical Evidence, and a Global Field
Research can play a vital role in pointing policymakers, civil society, and communities toward a stronger, more sustainable, and just world. But getting there means building on what we know about what it takes for research to be useful, used, and impactful.
Strengthening Methods and Improving Collaboration: The Use of Research Evidence Methods Repository
Introducing an open, centralized resource to help strengthen methods and enable greater collaboration among researchers studying the use of research evidence in policy and practice.
Featured Updates
Grantee Writing
How Universities Can Support Faculty of Color to Engage with Policymakers and Practitioners
In a new post, Denisa Gándara and Victoria Kim share insights from their ongoing study, which sheds light on barriers that impede faculty of color at research universities from from engaging with policymakers and practitioners around research. Having interviewed 20 faculty members of color who are either on the tenure track or tenured, Gándara and Kim detail the structural hurdles to external engagement and outline respondents’ recommendations for support from their universities.
Insights
The 21st Century Agenda for Research on Child Welfare and our Interest in Studies on Reducing Inequality
The result of close collaboration with Casey Family Programs and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as well as numerous national organizations, researchers, and individuals with lived experience in child welfare, the 21st century research agenda for child welfare captures the diversity of individuals involved in the child welfare system to highlight the most urgent needs.
USE OF RESEARCH EVIDENCE
Studying Ways to Improve the Use of Research Evidence: Distinguishing Data from Research Evidence
The Foundation recognizes many different kinds of evidence to inform decision-making: data, research findings, clinical experience, and community input. The Foundation’s priority is studying how, when and under what conditions evidence from research is used to inform policy and practice and ways to improve the use of that evidence.
Reducing Inequality
Webinar: What is the Role for Social Science in Reducing Inequality? Four New Critiques
The recent special collection of Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World began with a question: “If research is to make a difference in reducing inequality… how?” Offering new perspectives on ways that the social sciences can drive action and address large-scale social change, a new set of commentaries on the special collection outlines potential strategies including remaking research tools, incorporating theory and social-political contexts, learning from scholarship across disciplines and policy areas, and building a social science of radical reform. In this webinar, we’re joined by special collection authors and commentary writers to consider the state of the field and identify ways for sociology to move from understanding the problem of inequality to illuminating responses.
Reducing Inequality
Proposing Research on Reducing Inequality: Is Your Study a Fit?
Since 2015, the William T. Grant Foundation has funded exciting and important research that examines programs, polices, and practices to reduce inequality among youth ages 5-25 in the United States. If you are considering applying for a major grant or Officers’ research award in our reducing inequality focus area, we encourage you to closely evaluate whether your proposed study is a fit with our funding interests.
GRANTEE WRITING
Networks, Knowledge Brokers, and the Potential to Impact the Use of Research Evidence
“The myriad of pathways for future research are numerous; our hope is that the collection of chapters in our edited volume help to move forward the state of the art with regards to the knowledge, networks and brokers.”