We are pleased to announce the launch of ECMC Foundation: Research on Advancing Rural Postsecondary Education:
- Internal Submission Deadline: Monday, July 8, 2024
- Funding Organization's Deadline: Sunday, July 14, 2024
- Cycle: Up to 3 years
- Discipline/Subject Area: Postsecondary Education, Rural Sociology, Public Policy, Educational Equity
- Funding Available: 450000
- Website: https://www.ecmcfoundation.org/news/foundation/request-for-proposal-research-on-advancing-rural-postsecondary-education
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Description:
*The Office of Foundation Relations is the designated institutional contact responsible for managing the Penn State relationship with ECMC Foundation. If you plan on applying, please contact: Jara Dorsey-Lash at jed72@psu.edu, Interim Director of Foundation Relations, before preparing a submission or registering on the portal *
Program Description
ECMC Foundation is a national foundation whose North Star goal is to eliminate equity gaps in postsecondary completion by 2040 so that underserved learners have greater opportunity for social and economic mobility. The Foundation’s mission is to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation.
The Rural Impact Initiative ECMC Foundation launched the Rural Impact Initiative in January 2024, building on nearly a decade of existing grantmaking in rural higher education. This initiative aims to enhance the field’s understanding of the unique opportunities, assets and challenges of rural postsecondary institutions and learners and to ultimately increase rural learners’ postsecondary completion rates and enhance the capacity of organizations, institutions and systems to support rural learners.
This request for proposal (RFP) invites researchers committed to producing knowledge about rural learners and rural postsecondary institutions to apply for grants of up to three years and $450,000. ECMC Foundation expects to award up to seven grants that will begin on or after November 1, 2024. Successful projects will demonstrate how research findings inform actionable strategies for practitioners; local, state and federal policymakers; and/or intermediary partners and funders in advancing the postsecondary success of rural learners.
Research projects selected for funding through this RFP will be those that examine one of three priority areas:
Priority Area One: The College Experience of Rural Learners with Intersecting Identities
Rural learners are not monolithic and encompass a diverse spectrum of backgrounds, experiences, and aspirations. While rural communities share common characteristics such as geographic remoteness and limited access to resources, the needs and identities of rural learners are shaped by a multitude of factors including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation and ability. Acknowledging and centering this diversity is crucial for designing inclusive educational interventions that recognize and address the unique challenges and strengths of rural learners.
ECMC Foundation recognizes the complexity with defining who is rural. We are open to any federal or state government definition of rural as well as learners who self-identify as rural. ECMC Foundation considers intersecting identities to include but not limited to rural learners who also identify as: Alaska Native, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Native Hawaiian, or South Asian; LGBTQIA+; low-income; first-generation; over age 25; immigrants and/or undocumented.
Research in this focus area should center college experiences of rural learners through the lens of both rurality and any given intersecting identity as listed above. Lines of Inquiry may include:
Priority Area Two: The Roles of Rural Postsecondary Institutions
There is a clear need to better understand institutions that are located in rural communities and/or focused on serving rural learners. There are more than 1,000 rural-serving institutions and more than 500 rurally located institutions in the United States, serving more than four million learners, and there is a clear need to better understand these institutions in order to reach and support rural learners and communities. In recent years, many of these institutions have been threatened by low enrollment, possible mergers, lower financial support through state appropriations, and increases in staff turnover though oftentimes learners from rural communities are the most likely to attend these institutions. Rural postsecondary institutions, which are mostly regional comprehensive universities and community colleges and include several who hold status as minority serving institutions, can and do provide services that are responsive to their local cultural, geographic, and economic challenges. Moreover, these institutions are vital anchor institutions that contribute to their regions in terms of creating jobs; acting as arts and cultural centers; providing access to healthcare, broadband internet, and libraries; and valuing rural ways of life that have often been ignored by the higher education system writ large.
Lines of Inquiry may include:
Priority Area Three: The Policies Affecting Rural Postsecondary Education
Local, state and federal policies play a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of rural postsecondary education. Local policies may focus on funding allocations, infrastructure development, and partnerships with local industries to ensure relevance and accessibility. State governments wield significant influence over rural postsecondary education through funding mechanisms, regulatory frameworks and strategic planning initiatives. State policies often prioritize initiatives aimed at increasing college affordability, expanding access to financial aid, and promoting collaboration between institutions to maximize resources and educational opportunities. Finally, the federal government has more than 400 federal programs with targeted support for rural community and economic development, from agencies such as: Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Labor and Department of Transportation.
Lines of Inquiry may include:
Eligibility
Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations registered as a U.S. 501(c)(3) or a 509(a)(1), (2), or (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, state government agencies, non-profit two- and four-year institutions and systems or their affiliated and supporting foundations, and university-affiliated research centers or laboratories. Applicants may also represent partnerships between research teams and organizations, including research-practice partnerships.
ECMC Foundation values the importance of having meaningful connections and relationships between research teams and the communities they study. Therefore, if the proposed project includes working directly with rural communities/institutions to collect data (e.g., qualitative interviews with rural students, leveraging privately held datasets from a rural institution/organization), applicants must have an existing relationship with a rural-serving or rurally located postsecondary institution or a rural community/region.
Additionally, we strongly encourage applications from project teams representing the following:
Award Information
How to Apply
*Notify your unit's research office/ research administrator of your intent to apply and contact Jara Dorsey-Lash at jed72@psu.eduor 814-867-0554. The internal deadline of July 8, 2024 is for sending a proposal draft for review before submission.*
The submission deadline is Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.