Deadline: 28-Jul-21
The Russell Sage Foundation is seeking applications for its Social, Political, and Economic Inequality Grants Program to support innovative research on the factors that contribute to social, political, and economic inequalities in the U.S., and the extent to which those inequalities affect social, psychological, political, and economic outcomes, including educational access, job opportunities, social mobility, civic participation and representation, and the transmission of advantage and disadvantage within and across generations.
They seek innovative investigator-initiated research that will expand their understanding of social, political, and economic inequalities and the mechanisms by which they influence the lives of individuals and families. They welcome projects that explore the relevance of economic, racial, ethnic, age, gender, immigration, residence, or other statuses for the distribution of social, political and economic outcomes within and across these groups. RSF funding priorities do not include analyses of health behaviors or outcomes. RSF seldom supports studies focused on outcomes such as educational processes or curricular issues, but does prioritize analyses of inequities in educational attainment or student performance.
RSF is particularly interested in analyses that make use of newly available data or demonstrate novel uses of existing data. They also support original data collection when a project is focused on important program priorities. Proposals to conduct field experiments, in-depth qualitative interviews, and ethnographies are also encouraged.
RSF encourages methodological variety and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Proposed projects must have well-developed conceptual frameworks and research designs. Analytical models must be well-specified and research questions and hypotheses must be clearly stated.
Priorities
The kinds of questions that are of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Economic Wellbeing, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility
- Political Institutions and the Policy Process
- Psychological and/or Cultural Changes
- Educational Attainment
- Work, Labor Markets and Occupations
- Children and Families
- Neighborhoods and Communities
- Criminal Justice & the Legal System
Funding Information
- Funding can be used for research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time for conducting research and writing up results. Trustee Grants are generally capped at $175,000, including 15% indirect costs, over a two-year period. Presidential Awards are capped at $35,000 (no indirect costs). PIs may request up to $50,000 (no indirect costs) when the proposed research project has special needs for gathering data (e.g.qualitative research) or gaining access to restricted-use data.
- Projects are limited to no more than two years.
Eligibility Criteria
- All applicants (both PIs and Co-PIs) must have a doctorate. In rare circumstances, RSF may consider applications from scholars who do not hold a doctorate but can demonstrate a strong career background that establishes their ability to conduct high-level, peer-reviewed scholarly research. Students may not be applicants.
- RSF particularly encourages early career scholars to apply for Presidential grants or their Pipeline Competition. For the November deadlines you can apply for either the pipeline grants or their regular research grants but not both. All nationalities are eligible to apply and applicants do not have to reside in the U.S., but the focus of the proposed research project must be on the U.S. as per their mission.
For more information, visit https://www.russellsage.org/research/funding/social-inequality