Behavioral Interventions Scholars

Background
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is offering Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students using approaches grounded in behavioral science or behavioral economics to examine specific research questions of relevance to social services programs and policies. The grants aim to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral science or behavioral economics lens to issues facing poor and vulnerable families in the United States, and foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students.

Grant Details
The grant aims to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students using approaches grounded in behavioral science or behavioral economics to examine specific research questions of relevance to social services programs and policies. The grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to use behavioral science or behavioral economics approaches to examine specific research questions of relevance to social services programs and policies, and foster mentoring relationships between high-quality doctoral students and faculty members or other experienced researchers.

The goal is to learn how tools from behavioral science can be used to deliver programs more effectively, in order to improve the well-being of low-income children, adults, and families. Specific topics of interest include behavioral interventions within various domains such as TANF, employment, child welfare, housing, financial security, food assistance, human trafficking, refugee assistance, teen pregnancy prevention, child care, family violence prevention, healthy marriage, etc. The grant also requires participation in conferences and meetings, preparation of research briefs and briefings, an approved dissertation proposal by the due date of the grant application or prior to August 15 of the year of the competition, regular monitoring of the student’s work by the mentor/Principal Investigator, transparency in research and evaluation through registration with an appropriate registry prior to data collection initiation and archiving final data sets for secondary use by other interested researchers.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligibility is open to U.S. entities applying on behalf of a Principal Investigator who will serve as a mentor for an international non-U.S. citizen who is an advanced graduate student. Applicants are required to submit a letter of support from the graduate student’s mentor that approves the application. Cost sharing is required for these projects in accordance with Title XI, Section 1110 of the Social Security Act. Applications from individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible.

Period of Performance
The project period can be either 12 months or 24 months with two 12-month budget periods. The anticipated project start date is 09/30/2022.

Grant Value
$100,000 is the estimated total funding with an expected number of 4 awards. The award ceiling is $25,000 per budget period with an average projected award amount of $25,000 per budget period.