The Institute of Education Sciences' overarching priority is research that contributes to improved academic achievement for all students, and particularly for those whose education prospects are hindered by inadequate education services and conditions associated with poverty, race/ethnicity, limited English proficiency, disability, and family circumstance.

Please read the Overview of IES research and research training grant programs before continuing.

The Institute supports the following research and research training programs:

• Education Research Programs
• Special Education Research Programs
• Postdoctoral Research Training Program in the Education Sciences
• Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Special Education
• Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences

The National Center for Special Education Research and the National Center for Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences periodically host a series of webinars related to research funding opportunities.

For more information regarding webinar topics, dates, and registration process, browse here.

To view slides from previous webinar sessions discussing research funding opportunities at the National Center for Special Education Research and the National Center for Education Research, browse here.

Please register for the IES Newsflash for information about future webinars and upcoming funding opportunities.

The Institute of Education Sciences accepts unsolicited applications for research, evaluation, statistics, and dissemination projects that would make significant contributions to the mission of the Institute. » more info

The purpose of grants under this program is to enable State educational agencies to design, develop, and implement statewide, longitudinal data systems to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, disaggregate, and use individual student data. The long–term goal of the program is to enable all States to create comprehensive P–20 systems that permit the generation and use of accurate and timely data, support analysis and informed decision-making at all levels of the education system, increase the efficiency with which data may be analyzed to support the continuous improvement of education services and outcomes, facilitate research to improve student academic achievement and close achievement gaps, support education accountability systems, and simplify the processes used by State educational agencies to make education data transparent through Federal and public reporting. The grants awarded will support the development and implementation of systems that have the capacity to link individual student data across time and across databases (i.e., are "interoperable"), including the matching of teachers to students, promote the linking of data collected or held by various institutions, agencies, and States, and protect student privacy consistent with applicable privacy protection laws. The submission deadline for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant is November 19, 2009.

 Download, view and print the full RFA as a PDF file (281 KB)
 More information on the SLDS grant program is available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/.