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. Shifting structures and incentives within the university is one of the main challenges of the program, and university deans play a pivotal role in meeting this challenge.
In this webinar, deans from two current Institutional Challenge Grant teams join us to discuss the changes they intend for their respective schools, the concrete steps they are taking to encourage faculty to participate in engaged research, and the challenges they are navigating along the way. Gautam Yadama is Dean of the Boston College of Social Work and the PI of a 2020 Institutional Challenge Grant, and Katherine Schultz is Dean of the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education and a co-PI on a 2019 Institutional Challenge Grant. They are joined here by President Adam Gamoran and Senior Program Officer Lauren Supplee, who discuss the background and goals of the program, as well as details of the award, the application, and the review process.