Grant Spotlight

Applications Now Open for $159M in Education Innovation and Research Grants from ED's OESE

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 05/09/22

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education has begun accepting applications for $159 million in grants budgeted for the Education Innovation and Research Program, which aims to develop, implement, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students; and to rigorously evaluate such innovations.

“The EIR program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent education challenges and to support the expansion of those solutions to serve substantially higher numbers of students,’ ED’s grant announcement states.

The EIR program’s multi-tier structure pegs funding amounts to the quality of evidence presented by an applicant; applications for “early phase” grants, for example, with well-founded rationales for proposals not yet implemented would be required to show no evidence of success, while applications for “mid-phase” grants would be required to meet higher standards of evidence supporting the project’s effectiveness, according to ED’s website for the EIR grant program.

Eligible to apply are local education agencies; state education agencies; Native American tribal governments or tribal organizations; nonprofits; a consortium of state or local education agencies; and other groups defined within the Federal Register grant announcement.

The EIR program requires cost-sharing and/or matching.

Following are the deadlines and projected funding amounts for each phase of EIR grants:

• Early-Phase EIR Grants:
  • 11–20 awards of up to $4 million each
  • Deadline for notice of intent to apply: May 26, 2022
  • Deadline to apply: July 21, 2022
• Mid-Phase EIR Grants:
  • 5–12 awards of up to $8 million each
  • Deadline for notice of intent to apply: May 27, 2022
  • Deadline to apply: June 21, 2022
• Expansion-Phase EIR Grants:
  • 1–5 awards of up to $15 million each
  • Deadline for notice of intent to apply: May 27, 2022
  • Deadline to apply: July 21, 2022

Find more details, how to apply, and tips for applicants at ED’s website for the EIR grant program.