Education Innovation and Research (EIR)
RFP Summary provided by the agency
FY2022 update upcoming
EIR 101 Webinar – March 24, 2022, from 3-4PM EST
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The Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program provides funding to create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high need students; and rigorously evaluate such innovations. The EIR program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent educational challenges and to support the expansion of those solutions to serve larger numbers of students.
There are three types of grants under this program: “Early-phase” grants, “Mid-phase” grants, and “Expansion” grants. These grants differ in terms of the level of prior evidence of effectiveness required for consideration for funding, the expectations regarding the kind of evidence and information funded projects should produce, the level of scale funded projects should reach, and, consequently, the amount of funding available to support each type of project.
What is the mission and focus of the program: research, social, economic or others?
Field-Initiated Innovations—Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) Education, with a focus on Computer Science. Under the priority, we provide funding to projects that are designed to:
- Create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students
- Improve student achievement or other educational outcomes in one or more of the following areas: Science, technology, engineering, math, or computer science by identifying and implementing instructional strategies in these fields that are supported by strong evidence.
How do you submit to this opportunity?
Steps for submission:
1. Address To Request Application Package: You can obtain an application package from the Department’s website or Grants.gov. To obtain a copy via the Department’s website, use the following address: www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/ grantapps/index.html.
2. Content and Form of Application Submission: Requirements concerning the content and form of an application, together with the forms you must submit, are in the application package for the program.
3. Submission Dates and Times: Submit applications for grants under the program electronically using Grants.gov.
These estimated available funds are the total available for all three types of grants under the EIR program (Early-phase, Mid-phase, and Expansion grants). If additional of funds are available for quality applications, the department may make additional awards in later years from the list of unfunded applications from this competition.
Who are the target applicants: cities, universities, companies, small business, nonprofits, or others?
- A Local Education Agency (LEA)
- State Education Agency (SEA)
- The Bureau of Indian Education
- A consortium of SEAs, LEAs, or nonprofits. This consortium can also include a business or an institution of higher education.
Example project(s) summaries from past RFPs:
The BoSTEM Project: United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley (UWMB) partnered with Boston After School & Beyond (BASB) to propose an early-phase inquiry to address urgent needs for quality STEM education and college/career readiness [Absolute Priority 4]. BoSTEM will serve 1,294 high-need students in Year 1, scaling to 2,000 high-need students per year by Year 4 [Absolute Priority 1] in grades 6-8.
Description: BoSTEM will increase culturally responsive STEM out-of-school programming, aligned with in-school curricula, to prepare high-need middle school students, academically and socially, for STEM postsecondary education and careers by: 1) Employing a collaborative, continuous performance feedback cycle to encourage innovative, customized site-based strategies and supports within a framework for quality implementation; and 2) Implementing culturally responsive STEM programming to increase students’ college/career STEM aspirations. The BoSTEM EIR Project will provide a scalable, replicable, community-driven program to address this national need both in Boston and across the nation.
https://innovation.ed.gov/files/2016/12/U411C170195-United-Way-of-Massachusetts-Bay-Inc-Abstract.pdf
Additional Information
Designing and Implementing Social Emotional Learning Programs to Promote Equity
In the white paper, Designing and Implementing SEL Programs to Promote Equity, the office illustrates how and why designing, implementing, and evaluating high-quality SEL programs with a lens of equity and inclusion is imperative to realizing the promise of SEL programs in supporting students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being.
