Application Deadline: June 30, 2026
The 2026 application instructions for the William T. Grant Scholars Program have been published and are now accessible online. This prestigious program is designed to foster the professional growth of promising early-career researchers by supporting comprehensive five-year research and mentoring initiatives. These plans are intended to substantially broaden scholars’ expertise in novel disciplines, innovative methods, and new content areas.
For 2026, the application guidelines have been thoroughly updated to offer a more detailed overview of the Scholars Program. These revisions include clear explanations regarding eligibility prerequisites, the evaluation process, necessary application documents, and the program’s core research priorities.
The application window opens on March 27, 2026, and all submissions must be completed by June 30, 2026.
Program Overview
The William T. Grant Scholars Program is dedicated to supporting the career development of early-career researchers who demonstrate significant promise. Through this initiative, awardees receive funding for a five-year period to pursue research and mentoring activities that markedly expand their expertise into new areas, whether that involves different disciplines, methodologies, or subject matter.
Applicants are expected to have an established history of conducting rigorous, high-quality research and a strong desire to embark on a transformative shift in their research trajectory. Recognizing that early-career researchers often lack incentives or support to take calculated intellectual risks, the program incorporates a mentoring element and fosters a supportive academic community.
Focus Areas
Reducing Inequality
Within this research theme, the William T. Grant Foundation supports studies investigating programs, policies, or practices aimed at diminishing disparities affecting young people aged 5 to 25 in the United States. These inequalities may be along the lines of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual or gender minority status, language minority status, or immigrant background. Research may explore inequalities in academic achievement, social or behavioral outcomes, or economic opportunities.
Improving the Use of Research Evidence
The Foundation also funds research that examines ways to enhance the use of research evidence by decision-makers—including policymakers, agency leaders, organizational managers, intermediaries, and community advocates—who influence youth-serving systems across the U.S. This area focuses on developing and empirically testing strategies that increase the uptake of research findings to benefit young people ages 5 to 25.
Research Interests
Reducing Inequality
The Foundation is particularly interested in studies that deepen understanding of how and why specific programs, policies, or practices effectively reduce inequality. Descriptive research that clarifies underlying mechanisms is welcomed, as is work that tackles systemic racism and the structural roots of inequality that constrain young people’s life chances. The Foundation encourages multidisciplinary approaches, diverse research methods, and investigations spanning multiple youth-serving systems, including justice, housing, child welfare, mental health, and education.
Improving the Use of Research Evidence
Research proposals in this area should aim to advance both theoretical frameworks and empirical knowledge about improving research use in youth-serving contexts. While prior studies have identified conditions conducive to research use, there is a need for validated strategies and a clearer understanding of the structural and social conditions that facilitate sustained use of research evidence. Studies might explore what kind of infrastructure, incentives, or supports are necessary to promote research uptake, and importantly, whether enhanced research use leads to better outcomes for young people.
Also welcomed are descriptive studies that identify mechanisms and conditions for improving research use, as well as measurement-focused research developing reliable and valid tools for assessing research utilization.
Awards
Selected awardees become William T. Grant Scholars. Each year, between four and six scholars are chosen. Each recipient receives a total of $425,000 distributed over five years, which includes up to 7.5% for indirect costs.
Awards commence on July 1 of the award year and are granted to the scholars’ respective institutions. It is important to note that this funding is intended to supplement, not replace, the institution’s existing support for the researcher’s work.
Selection Criteria
Applicant Qualifications
- Demonstrate potential to become a leading researcher in their field.
- Show evidence of prior training and scholarly publications that highlight the ability to conduct and communicate sophisticated, innovative research.
- Possess a promising record of first-authored, high-quality empirical publications in peer-reviewed journals; the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity.
- Clearly articulate plans to substantially broaden their expertise in new areas through the award. This might involve acquiring new disciplinary knowledge, mastering different research methods, or exploring unfamiliar content domains.
Research Plan Requirements
- The research proposal must align with one of the Foundation’s two focus areas: reducing inequality or improving the use of research evidence.
- For reducing inequality, projects should aim to build, test, or deepen understanding of programs, policies, or practices that address disparities affecting youth aged 5–25 in the U.S.
- For improving research use, proposals should focus on strategies that enhance the application of research evidence by decision-makers in youth-serving systems.
- The application should demonstrate thorough mastery of relevant theories and empirical literature, clearly delineating the theoretical and empirical contributions to existing knowledge.
- Projects may focus either on theory generation or theory testing, depending on the maturity of the research area.
- While a single project is not expected to produce immediate policy or practice changes, findings should be relevant and potentially impactful.
- The research design must adhere to rigorous standards of evidence and employ appropriate, robust methodologies that align with the stated goals.
- Latter stages of the research plan may be less detailed than earlier ones, but applicants must provide sufficient specificity to demonstrate feasibility and rigor throughout.
- Sampling, case selection, and measurement strategies should be well-justified and suited to the research questions, with attention paid to sample size and composition.
- Qualitative case selection should be purposeful and appropriate for the questions proposed.
- Analysis plans should reveal a clear understanding of the strengths and limitations of chosen methods, including plans for mixed-methods integration if applicable.
- Where relevant, the proposal should address generalizability and statistical power considerations.
- The research must thoughtfully incorporate considerations of gender, ethnicity, and culture with regard to conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and measurement tools.
- Feasibility is critical: the project must be realistically achievable within the funded period and resources. When additional funding is necessary, applicants should present credible plans to secure it.
- The overall research plan should be cohesive, with integrated studies (if multiple) forming a unified whole.
- The activities outlined must substantively expand the applicant’s expertise, with detailed descriptions of how this learning will occur.
- For example, quantitative researchers aiming to develop qualitative research skills should propose a robust suite of learning activities beyond occasional mentoring, such as coursework, workshops, ongoing feedback during data collection and analysis, and advisory consultations.
- Reviewers expect evidence of significant investment in developing new methodological competencies.
Mentoring Plan
- Applicants must identify one or two mentors for the first two years of the award; two mentors are typical and recommended.
- The mentoring plan for subsequent years will be developed in collaboration with Foundation staff after the initial two years.
- The proposed plan and accompanying mentor letters must confirm that all participants have agreed upon specific goals designed to expand the applicant’s expertise in line with the research plan.
- Mentors should possess appropriate qualifications, expertise, and resources to support the applicant’s development in the targeted new areas.
For detailed information and to begin your application process, please visit the official William T. Grant Scholars Program page by clicking the link below:
