Apply for a Spencer Foundation Small grant. Deadlines in April, June, and August

Small Research Grants in the Areas of Inquiry
Proposal Submission Guidelines

For research proposals with budgets of $50,000 or less, please see the information provided below regarding our submission process.

Eligibility and Restrictions:

• Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs applying for a research grant must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field, or appropriate experience in an education research-related profession.
• The PI must be affiliated with a college, university, school district, non-profit research facility, or non-profit cultural institution that is willing to serve as the fiscal agent if the grant is awarded. The Spencer Foundation does not award grants directly to individuals.
• Proposals are accepted from the U.S. and internationally, however all proposals must be submitted in English and budgets must be proposed in U.S. Dollars.
• PIs and Co-PIs may only hold one active research grant from the Spencer Foundation at a time. Simultaneous submissions to the Foundation from PIs and Co-PIs are discouraged due to this policy.

Upcoming Deadlines

The next deadline for Small Grant proposals is 4:00pm CST, Thursday, April 9, 2015. The following deadlines will be June 2, 2015 and August 20, 2015. Additional deadlines will be posted as they are scheduled; this program typically has a deadline every 2-3 months.

The review of complete proposal applications submitted by the deadline will take approximately 4 months. We recommend that your proposed start date be no sooner than 4 months following the deadline.

Submission Guidelines
Proposals must be submitted electronically using the Spencer Foundation’s online system. The online system is configured for the PI on the project to register and submit the proposal themselves. If someone other than the PI will be completing the online application, please reference the Detailed Application Guidelines link below for further instruction. The basic steps for submitting the proposal are:

Step 1: Registration: If the scholar serving as the PI on the project has never accessed the Spencer Foundation online system, they must register and create a profile by clicking on the link below and then clicking the “Register Here” button.

Step 2 – My Profile: After logging in, the PI should complete the information requested on the My Profile page (upper right corner of the screen) and upload their current CV (10 page limit).

Step 3 – New Proposal: To create a new draft proposal, the PI should click the New Proposal tab on the Home screen and click the Apply button for the Small Research Grants in the Areas of Inquiry Application.

The Small Grant application can be saved and then accessed through the Pending Proposals tab. Once the Submit button is clicked, the application will no longer be editable.

Detailed Online Application Guidelines
Click here for detailed guidelines for the Small Grants online application. We strongly recommend these guidelines be referenced while the application is being completed.

Online Application
Click here for access to the Spencer Foundation’s online application system.

Questions
Click here for the Frequently Asked Questions page if you have questions about applying for a research grant from the Spencer Foundation.  Please direct any additional questions regarding the proposal submission process to Annie Brinkman, Grants Manager, atabrinkman@spencer.org or 312-274-6511.