IES is presenting grant opportunities in a new format this year. To make it as easy as possible and less time consuming for the reader/applicant, this section identifies the major differences from last year's format and describes the consequent organization of information in this year's three (3) Requests For Applications (RFA's).

In FY2006, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) held a larger number of formal grant competitions, each one addressing a distinct topic area and each with its own RFA. For example, there were separate RFA's for Reading and Writing, Mathematics and Science Education, etc. Both the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) offered multiple, single-topic competitions. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) also offered a National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) secondary analyses grant competition last year.

In FY2007, IES is holding fewer formal grant competitions but addressing more topics. There are three competitions: one addressing education research (through NCER); one addressing special education research (through NCSER); and one addressing NAEP secondary analyses (through NCES). The education and special education competitions each encompass multiple, specific topic areas.

Last year each topic-specific RFA was self-contained. This year the NCER and NCSER RFA's are organized into sections that contain information that is common to all topics and sections that contain topic-specific information. The NAEP RFA remains self-contained.

This RFA (IES-NCER-2007-01) describes the education research competition. There are eleven (11) separate topics described in this RFA. Applications for three (3) of these topics have an application transmittal deadline of July 27, 2006, and will be reviewed in the fall of 2006. Applications for four (4) topics have an application transmittal deadline of November 16, 2006, and will be reviewed in the late winter (February or March) of 2007. Applications for the remaining four (4) topics applications may be submitted at either of the two transmittal deadlines (July 27 or November 16, 2006), and will be reviewed at both times.

Also new this year are the forms for submitting applications electronically. Highlights of the forms will be available on the web no later than April 11, 2006.

Information on special education research topics may be found in the IES-NCSER-2007-01 RFA, and information on NAEP secondary analyses may be found in the IES-NCES-2007-01 RFA. Topic-specific application transmittal deadlines are specified within these RFA's as well (note, there is only one "topic" and transmittal date for the NAEP RFA).

Suggested options for reading this RFA:

You may download the entire RFA as a .PDF file or you can navigate to particular sections of the RFA on line.

We suggest that prospective applicants begin by reading Parts I & II (introductory sections), followed by Part IV (common information on research Goals One through Four for all topics); then read Part III (topic-specific information, including information on research goal Five), and finally Part V (common application and submission information for all topics). Again, notice the differing application transmittal deadlines by topic. Also, pay careful attention to the differing requirements for the five research goals in general. There is a decision tree provided in Part IV to help confirm which goal is appropriate for your application. In addition, in this RFA, detailed goal-related requirements are included in the topic-specific sections.

Of course, this RFA may be read start to finish, or you may want to start with a specific topic of interest (topic-specific sections are shown in the RFA table of contents that precedes this guide).