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ACF is funding a cooperative agreement to sponsor the Child Development Research Fellowship that gives child development professionals from the academic research community the opportunity to experience policy research relevant to programs serving low income children and families. The goal of the fellowship program is to expose researchers to policy environments, particularly at the federal level, whereby they gain skills and expertise for policy-relevant research. The program is intended to stimulate the fellows' knowledge of child development research and evaluation, particularly regarding services for low income children and families, and to inform their process of developing long-term, policy-relevant research and evaluation agendas. The public will benefit from the increased availability of researchers highly skilled and experienced in policy- and program-relevant research and evaluation. Fellows will engage on a full-time basis for a period of one year (with a possible second or third year at the discretion of the grantee and depending on funding availability). Fellows will be exposed to the broader child development policy environment, particularly at the federal level, and to the policy research community through activities organized and conducted by the grantee. The cooperative agreement will require active partnership between the successful applicant and OPRE.

NCIPC is seeking research proposals focused on rigorously evaluating previously or currently implemented federal, state, local, tribal or organizational policies for impacts on multiple forms of violence, including child abuse and neglect, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and/or suicide. The proposed research should evaluate the impact of a selected policy on reducing rates of at least two of these violence outcomes. The proposed research must focus on a policy that has not yet been rigorously evaluated. Applicants are encouraged to assess the impact of the policy on as many violence outcomes that is feasible as well as risk and protective factors that are common to multiple forms of violence. The proposed research will add to the limited evidence base regarding the impact of policies on preventing multiple forms of violence by rigorously evaluating federal, state, local, or organizational policy approaches.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) plans to solicit applications for Child Care Policy Research Partnership grants. These four-year cooperative agreements will be conducted through partnerships between CCDF Lead Agencies in states, territories, or tribes and researchers from institutions of higher education, research organizations, and other eligible organizations. Applications are invited from CCDF Lead Agencies, institutions of higher education, research organizations, and other organizations with proven expertise conducting policy research. The work supported by this grant program should be collaborative from start to finish. Specifically, the CCDF Lead Agency and their research partners need to work together throughout all phases of the project. Child Care Policy Research Partnership grantees will be expected to pursue research questions of national and state relevance. Therefore, grantees are encouraged to include other local and state child care stakeholders. These projects are intended to add to our knowledge about the efficacy of child care subsidy policies and quality improvement initiatives that support employment and self-sufficiency outcomes for parents, increase low-income families' access to high quality child care programs, and promote positive learning and school readiness outcomes for children. Examples of priority questions include, but are not limited to: effects of policy changes since the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014, supports for family child care providers, consumer education, licensing and monitoring, and efforts to build the supply of high-quality care. Funding is subject to availability of funds and the best interests of the federal government.

The American Psychological Foundation is accepting applications for its APF Annette Urso Rickel Foundation Dissertation Award for Public Policy. The $1,000 scholarship supports dissertation research on public policy that has the potential to improve services for children and families facing psychosocial issues such as prevention of child abuse, school programs for children with psychological issues, services for youth in the criminal justice system, healthy parenting, math and science education, and contributions to the adoption of sound policy affecting children, youth, and families. To be eligible, applicants must be a graduate student in psychology enrolled full time in a regionally accredited institution located in the U.S. or Canada; have completed his/her doctoral candidacy, including dissertation approval by a doctoral committee; and have demonstrated research competence and commitment to the field.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) plans to award a cooperative agreement to operate Research Connections. Research Connections is a web-based, interactive database of research documents and public use data sets for conducting secondary analyses on topics related to early care and education. Research Connections houses an increasingly comprehensive collection of research reports, syntheses, and other critical information related to child care and early education, and in particular, children in low-income families; provides researchers access to data from major child care, Head Start, and early education research and evaluation studies; provides technical assistance to researchers and policy makers; provides collaboration and outreach that can strengthen dissemination and use of research by both the research and the policy maker communities, and provides support to the Child Care Policy Research Consortium.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus research on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (both primary data collection and secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research.

Proposed fellowships must fit the Grant Foundation's research interests. The foundation currently supports research to understand and improve the everyday settings of youth between the ages of 8 and 25 in the United States. Specifically, the foundation funds studies that enhance the understanding of how youth settings work, how they affect youth development, and how they can be improved; and when, how, and under what conditions research evidence is used in policy and practices that affect youth, and how its use can be improved. To be eligible, applicants must be influential mid-career practitioners, policy makers, or researchers, and propose one or two tax-exempt private and governmental organizations that are willing to "house" and mentor the fellow. For the purposes of this program, a mid-career professional is defined as having eight to twenty years of cumulative experience in his/her current role as a researcher, policy maker, or practitioner.

The $1,000 scholarship supports dissertation research on public policy with the potential to improve services for children and families facing psychosocial issues, including child abuse prevention, school programs for children with psychological issues, services for youth in the criminal justice system, healthy parenting, math and science education, and the adoption of sound policy affecting children, youth, and families.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (including primary data collection and/or secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research. For further information about OPRE, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/. For information about previous Family Strengthening grantees, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/research/project/family-strengthening-scholars.

The Administration for Children and Families has funding available for a cooperative agreement to support a grantee as a trusted source for research and policy related information for the child care and early education field. The grantee will establish and operate a website for the Child Care and Early Education Research Connections database (hereafter referred to as "Research Connections"). The interactive website (http://www.researchconnections.org) will house a comprehensive and up-to-date database of resources derived from rigorous research including scholarly peer-reviewed research and 'gray' literature (i.e., rigorous research published as policy briefs, state and federal government reports, foundation reports, etc.) and publicly available assessment instruments relevant to child care and early education policy and practice (i.e., community based child care serving children birth through 13-years, Early Care and Education (ECE) programs, home-based child care, family child care, Head Start, public Pre-kindergarten (Pre-K), and after-school programs).

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (including primary data collection and/or secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research. For further information about OPRE, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/. For information about previous Family Strengthening grantees, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/research/project/family-strengthening-scholars.

To that end, FCD currently is accepting proposals for its 2020 Young Scholars Program (YSP). The YSP program funds implementation research that is policy and practice-relevant and examines the preparation, competency, compensation, well-being, and ongoing professional learning of the early care and education (ECE) workforce. Research awards are up to $225,000 for primary research and up to $180,000 for secondary data analysis. All proposed research must attempt to answer primary questions that are relevant to the ECE workforce and support scientific inquiry into the implementation of specific early care and education programs, policies, or practices. Implementation research provides the opportunity to engage in meaningful exploration of what works (or not), for whom, and under what conditions. In addition, all supported research must have a clear connection to policies and practices that have the potential to result in a positive impact on the ECE workforce and on young children in YSP's priority populations.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to support (1) research to test the efficacy or effectiveness of interventions to prevent initiation and/or escalation of ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery system) use among adolescents; and(2 )research on the impact of tobacco control policies, including ENDS-specific policies, on adolescent ENDS use behavior. Of priority is research that is theoretically based and identifies specific risk and protective factors to target through prevention intervention, or research on policies that can impact adolescent ENDS use. Particularly, for prevention intervention research (e.g., school, community, and clinic-based), collaboration with stakeholders and likely program adopters is required to ensure feasibility for implementation, scalability, dissemination and sustainability. For this funding announcement, individuals as young as 12 and as old as 18 encompass the core target age range. Justification for the specific age or age range of the target population is required, including studies that propose targeting youth outside the core age range.

The Research Networks Focused on Critical Problems of Education Policy and Practice Program is designed to direct resources and attention to education problems or issues that are a high priority for the Nation, and to create a structure and process for researchers who are working on these issues to share ideas, build new knowledge, and strengthen their research and dissemination capacity. Under this announcement, the Institute of Education Sciences (Institute) intends to award one grant under this program to fund the Lead of a CTE Network, which is to carry out the requirements under section 114(d)(4) of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act to establish a national research center to carry out scientifically based research on career and technical education programs. The CTE Network will conduct research on CTE through projects funded by other Institute grant competitions. The goal of the CTE Network is to support and expand the causal research base on CTE at the secondary and/or postsecondary level specifically through research on whether and how CTE practices, programs, and policies affect student education outcomes.

Purpose of Program: The Institute's purpose in awarding these grants is to provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of (1) developmental and school readiness outcomes for infants and toddlers with or at risk for a disability, and (2) education outcomes for all students from early childhood education through postsecondary and adult education. The Institute's research grant programs are designed to provide interested individuals and the general public with reliable and valid information about education practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to education opportunities for all students. These interested individuals include parents, educators, students, researchers, and policymakers. In carrying out its grant programs, the Institute provides support for programs of research in areas of demonstrated national need. Competitions in This Notice: The Institute will conduct 10 research competitions in FY 2018 through two of its centers: The Institute's National Center for Education Research (NCER) will hold five competitions: One competition for education research; one competition for education research and development centers; one competition for partnerships and collaborations focused on problems of practice or policy; and two competitions for low-cost, short-duration evaluation of education interventions. The Institute's National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) will hold five competitions: One competition for special education research; one competition for research training programs in special education; two competitions for low-cost, short-duration evaluation of special education interventions; and one competition for research networks focused on critical problems of policy and practice in special education.

One of the oldest American foundations, the Russell Sage Foundation was established by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for "the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States." In pursuit of this mission, the foundation now dedicates itself to strengthening the methods, data, knowledge, and theoretical core of the social sciences as a means of diagnosing social problems and improving social policies. The foundation's program on Social Inequality supports research on the social, economic, political, and labor market consequences of rising economic inequalities in the United States. The program seeks Letters of Inquiry for investigator-initiated research projects that will broaden current understanding of the causes and consequences of rising economic inequalities. Priority will be given to projects that use innovative data or methodologies to address important questions about inequality. Examples of the kinds of topics that are of interest include, but are not limited to, economic well-being, equality of opportunity, and intergenerational mobility; the political process and the resulting policies; psychological and/or cultural change; education; labor markets; child development and child outcomes; neighborhoods and communities; families, family structure, and family formation; and other forms of inequality.

This solicitation will support field-initiated, methodologically rigorous research and/or evaluations focused on interactions between law enforcement and youth, with practical implications for the identification and development of programs and policies that ensure officer, youth, and community safety. This solicitation encourages researchers to propose studies that contribute to the development of scientific evidence about factors that facilitate or inhibit positive police-youth interactions, as well as evaluations of the implementation and effectiveness of trainings, programs, practices, or policies designed to facilitate productive law enforcement and youth engagement.

The research grants program of the William T. Grant Foundation supports high-quality field-initiated studies that are relevant to policies and practices that affect the lives of young people in the United States. To that end, the foundation is accepting applications in support of research projects designed to advance understanding of inequality in youth outcomes and/or improving the use of research evidence in decisions that affect young people. The foundation will award grants of up to $600,000 over two or three years in support of research designed to build, test, and increase understanding of approaches to reducing inequality in youth outcomes on the basis of race, ethnicity, economic standing, or immigrant origin status. The foundation is particularly interested in research on programs, policies, and practices with the potential to reduce inequality in academic, social, behavioral, and economic outcomes.

The Lalor Foundation is accepting applications for programs designed to educate young women about human reproduction in order to broaden and enhance their options in life. Through its Anna Lalor Burdick Program, the foundation seeks to empower young women through education about healthy reproduction. The program focuses in particular on young women who have inadequate access to information regarding sexual and reproductive health, including comprehensive and unbiased information on contraception and pregnancy termination. Grants of up to $35,000 will be awarded in support of programs for young women, particularly those who are disadvantaged by poverty, discrimination, geographic isolation, lack of specific sex education, hostile public policy, or other factors leading to inadequate reproductive health. Areas of interest include programs that include a comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health education; novel ideas, including innovative methods of delivering information; and programs that incorporate advocacy or policy change.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is soliciting applications for Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are using behavioral science approaches to examine specific research questions of relevance to social service programs and policies. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral lens to issues facing poor and vulnerable families in the United States, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. Applicants are required to demonstrate the applicability of their research to practice or policy serving low-income children, adults, and families, especially those that seek to improve their well-being.