Grant Funding Resources for Educational Initiatives

• Introduction
• Internal Funding Sources
• Grant Databases
• Selected External Funding Sources
  • General Sources
  • Funding for Humanities Education
  • Funding for Social Science Education
  • Funding for STEM Education
• Recent Calls for Proposals

Introduction

A variety of sources of grant funding are available to support educational initiatives at the college and university level.  Below you’ll find information on databases of funding opportunities as well as several different funding agencies.

Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff interested in applying for a grant to support an educational initiative are encouraged to take advantage of the CFT’s grant consultation services.  Other local resources include:

• Research at Vanderbilt, from the Vice Provost for Research
• Division of Sponsored Research
• Corporate & Foundation Relations
• A&S Grants Resource Office
• VUMC Office of Research
• Graduate Student Funding Workshops
• Applying for National Science Foundation CAREER Grants, from CIRTL

Internal Funding Sources

• Enhancing Graduate Education – This occasional grant series provides internal funds for initiatives designed to improve graduate education at Vanderbilt.

• Venture Fund Grants – This occasional grant series provides funds to College of Arts & Science full-time faculty members (including senior lecturers) to implement proposals for innovative courses and creative pedagogical practices. For more information, contact the A&S Dean’s Office at 615-322-2851.

Grant Databases

• Research Professional is a searchable funding information database accessible from any Vanderbilt computer without registering or needing a password. However, if you register yourself, you can sign up for weekly email alerts of new grant opportunities in your field of interest. Registered users can also save their searches and set up email alerts for those searches.

• The Grant Advisor Plus is a weekly publication that highlights upcoming grant opportunities. Those entries are also compiled in a searchable database.  Access is available from any Vanderbilt computer.

• Grants.gov offers grant listings from 26 federal agencies. Search by keyword, category, agency or more advanced criteria. You can also subscribe to receive email notification of funding opportunities.  RSS subscriptions are also available.

• The Foundation Center helps philanthropic foundations connect with grant seekers.  Its website allows one to look up grantmaking organizations and search requests for proposals.

Selected External Funding Sources

General Sources

• The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) – Postsecondary Education Program – This Department of Education research program contributes to “improving access to, persistence in, and completion of postsecondary education,” particularly for at-risk students.

• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation – Higher Education Initiatives – This foundation helps universities to “become more entrepreneurial—not only in what they teach and how they teach it, but in how they operate.”

• Henry Luce Foundation – Higher Education Grants – “The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities.”  

• The Spencer Foundation – This foundation’s mission is to “investigate ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world.”  It funds grants focusing on several different aspects of higher education.

• Ford Foundation – Educational initiatives that align with Ford Foundation goals “to reduce poverty and injustice and to promote democratic values, international cooperation and human achievement” might apply for grants or fellowships.

• Lumina Foundation – This foundation provides funding for initiatives designed to “to increase awareness of the benefits of higher education, improve student access to and preparedness for college, improve student success in college and increase productivity across the higher education system.” You can follow the Lumina Foundation via monthly or daily emails or RSS feeds.

• The Teagle Foundation – This foundation is “committed to promoting and strengthening liberal education.” Their programs “generally encourage collaboration among institutions, seeking to generate new knowledge on issues of importance to higher education.”

• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation – Digital Media & Learning Initiative – “The digital media and learning initiative aims to determine how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to education and other social institutions that must meet the needs of this and future generations.”

Funding for Humanities Education

• National Endowment for the Humanities – Division of Education Programs -  “Through its programs devoted to teachers and their students, the division strives to cultivate intellectual curiosity, so that students can deepen their reflections on human experience; increase their understanding of different cultures and societies, past and present; and achieve the knowledge and wisdom necessary for democratic citizenship."

• National Endowment for the Humanities - Office of Digital Humanities - "Digital technology has changed the way scholars perform their work. It allows new questions to be raised and has radically changed the ways in which materials can be searched, mined, displayed, taught, and analyzed." See the office's list of grant opportunities for those that might have educational components.

Funding for Social Science Education

• Social Science Research Council – Part of the SSRC’s mission is to “educate and train the next generation of social science researchers.”  The SSRC sometimes offers fellowships and grants to that end.

Funding for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Education

• National Institutes for Health (NIH) – R25 Education Projects -  These grants are “For support to develop and/or implement a program as it relates to a category in one or more of the areas of education, information, training, technical assistance, coordination, or evaluation.”  For currently available R25 grants, search here using the keyword “R25.” You can also subscribe to the NIH's weekly email of all NIH grant opportunities.

• National Science Foundation (NSF) – Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) – This directorate includes the Division of Graduate Education (DGE), Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE), and Division of Research on Learning (DRL), all of which offer funding opportunities of potential interest to the Vanderbilt science, engineering, and mathematics community. The most recent EHR program announcements are available, and you can subscribe to these announcements via email or RSS.

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation – Science Education – “Grants in the Science Education program area promote access to the scientific enterprise, provide information about scientific and technical careers, and encourage innovation to the structure of scientific training.”

Recent Calls for Proposals

Recent calls for proposals noted by CFT staff as potentially relevant to Vanderbilt instructors are listed here. Click on the links for more information.

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