Research Grants on Education: Small
Spencer Foundation's Small Research Grants on Education fund innovative, interdisciplinary research projects that advance foundational knowledge and address key questions in education across diverse settings and methods.
Funder: Spencer Foundation
Due Dates (Anticipated): October 2026 | March 2027
Funding Amounts: Up to $50,000 per project (plus up to $10,000 for eligible course release); project duration up to 5 years.
Summary: Supports innovative, field-initiated research projects that advance foundational knowledge and address key questions in education across disciplines and settings.
Description
The Small Research Grants on Education Program from the Spencer Foundation funds rigorous, field-initiated education research projects designed to advance foundational knowledge and address pressing questions in education. The program is open to a wide range of topics and disciplines—such as education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, and neuroscience—and values methodological diversity, including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, computational modeling, and more. Projects may focus on learning across the life span and in diverse settings, including classrooms, communities, and workplaces. The program encourages proposals from scholars at all career stages, both in the U.S. and internationally, and seeks research that will have a lasting impact on educational discourse and practice.
