Deadline: 7-Apr-23
WorkRise is pleased to announce its 2023 request for proposals (RFP) for research projects and pilots that build actionable insights for improving US labor market practices and policies.
WorkRise funds scholars and practitioners on the frontiers of understanding and improving economic mobility in the US labor force, particularly for Black workers and other historically disadvantaged segments of the labor force.
Focus Area
- Projects must address one or more of WorkRise’s six focus areas:
- Employer practices
- Job search and matching
- Macroeconomic and labor market trends and policies
- Skills and training
- Social determinants of work/360-degree perspective on workers
- Worker power, voice, and representation
Funding Information
- WorkRise anticipates that up to $3 million in awards will be made pursuant to this RFP.
Supported Activities
- WorkRise funds may be used to support research and engagement activities, including research planning; sample recruitment; conducting focus groups or interviews; data collection and analysis; writing research and communications materials; partnership building; and stakeholder engagement activities such as workshops, public events, and convenings. For pilot studies, WorkRise generally will support only research and evaluation activities. The intervention being evaluated should be funded through other sources, which should be described in your application.
Eligibility Criteria
- They strongly encourage projects that build meaningful engagements and partnerships with diverse stakeholder groups—workers, employers, organizers, community organizations and institutions, and public agencies at a local, state, and national level—to inform research designs, test approaches, disseminate findings, and build trust and consensus around findings. Collaborations that build the capacities of diverse scholars from lessresourced and traditionally underrepresented institutions will be received with particular interest.
- Applying teams should be led by a principal investigator(s) with experience conducting research and an affiliation with an eligible organization, such as an academic institution, public entity, private nonprofit organization, state or local government agency, or a for-profit organization. All organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
Selection Criteria
To be considered for funding, projects must
- Demonstrate relevance to WorkRise’s research agenda on improving economic mobility for US workers;
- Answer a clearly defined research question using methods that will yield robust findings relative to the existing evidence base on that question; and
- Describe how their findings ultimately might impact actions by labor market stakeholders.
These criteria are explained in more detail in the following subsections.
The most compelling projects will include dissemination and engagement strategies and user-centered communications products that make findings concrete and actionable for audiences that can apply them.
For more information, visit WorkRise.