Deadline: 30-Jun-2020
The Foundation for Child Development has announced a Young Scholars Program (YSP) to support scholarship for early career researchers.
The program funds implementation research that is policy and practice-relevant and that examines the preparation, competency, compensation, well-being, and on-going professional learning of the early care and education (ECE) workforce.
The Foundation believes that high quality early learning experiences are crucial for the healthy lifelong development and learning of young children across the birth to age eight continuum. They believe that a deeper understanding of the role of ECE professionals in enhancing young children’s early learning experiences can ultimately improve the chances for all children to reach their full potential.
Three specific goals frame the Foundation’s current programmatic priority to strengthen the ECE workforce:
- Professionalize the early childhood field and build greater awareness of the status of the early childhood workforce.
- Enhance the quality of professional practice.
- Improve teacher preparation and ongoing professional learning, with special attention to the influence and role of institutions of higher education.
Funding Information
- Up to four grants are available for support of individual scholarship.
- For proposed research projects involving either primary data collection or a combination of primary data collection and secondary data analysis, the maximum grant award, including indirect costs, is $225,000 to be used over a two- to three-year period. Grant funds are intended to support the Principal Investigator’s salary, research assistance, and direct research expenses. Indirect and overhead costs are limited to 15% of the total direct personnel costs.
- For proposed research projects solely focused on secondary data analysis, the maximum grant award, including indirect costs, is $180,000 to be used over a two- to three-year period. Grant funds are intended to support the Principal Investigator’s salary and direct research expenses. Indirect and overhead costs are limited to 15% of the total direct personnel costs.
Eligibility Criteria
- Principal Investigators must have received their doctoral degrees (e.g., Ph.D., Ed.D., Psy.D., J.D.) between January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2019. Physician applicants must have received their M.D. degrees between January 1, 2008 to June 30, 2019. A minimum of one year must have elapsed since receiving their degrees before Principal Investigators may apply to the program.
- Applicants must be United States citizens, legal permanent residents, or those who have employment authorization from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time of the award and for the duration of the fellowship.
- For the duration of the fellowship, individual Principal Investigators must be full-time employees of a private, 501(c)(3) non-profit institution (including research firms) or of a public American college or university located in the United States and its territories that will receive and process the Foundation’s grant as well as support (e.g., contribute material and in-kind support) the funded research project, if awarded.
- The affiliated 501(c)(3) non-profit institution (including research firms) or public American college or university must have a minimum annual operating budget of $2.5 million, have a minimum three-year track record in leading and conducting multi-year research projects (at least three over the last three years), include research as a core activity as described in recent annual reports, and have produced and publicly disseminated a minimum of five publications (over the last five years) reporting the results of their research.
- The applicant is the sole Principal Investigator and will lead the proposed research (no Co-Investigators).
- More than one applicant may apply from a single institution.
- Returning applicants are welcome and strongly encouraged to re-apply.
For more information, visit https://www.fcd-us.org/about-us/young-scholars-program/