In this webinar from May 2024, Senior Program Officer Jenny Irons and President Adam Gamoran discuss the background and goals of the Institutional Challenge Grant program, as well as provide an overview of eligibility details, required materials, and review criteria. Jenny and Adam also field questions from attendees and share practical advice on how to prepare a competitive application, with special attention to developing a strong research agenda.
The Institutional Challenge Grant encourages university-based research institutes, schools, and centers to build sustained research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations in order to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. The grant requires that research institutions shift their policies and practices to value collaborative research. Institutions will also need to build the capacity of researchers to produce relevant work and the capacity of agency and nonprofit partners to use research.
We welcome applications from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, prevention of child abuse and neglect, foster care, mental health, immigration, and workforce development. We especially encourage proposals from teams with African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American members in leadership roles. The partnership leadership team includes the principal investigator from the research institution and the lead from the public agency or nonprofit organization.
The award provides an initial $650,000 over three years, with the opportunity to apply for a two-year continuation grant of $350,000, for a total of $1,000,000 in funding over five years.
