The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is soliciting applications for Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are using approaches grounded in behavioral science or behavioral economics to examine research questions of relevance to social services programs and policies.
Donor Name: Administration for Children and Families
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/05/2023
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Grant Duration: 12 months
Details:
These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral science or behavioral economics lens to issues facing families in the United States with low incomes, and to foster faculty mentorship of high-quality doctoral students. Applicants are required to demonstrate how their research is grounded in behavioral economics/behavioral science and the applicability of their research to practices or policies serving children, adults, and families with low incomes, especially those that seek to improve their well-being.
The Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants intends to support dissertation research to continue building empirical evidence in the field of behavioral science, specifically as applied to social services programs and policies and other issues facing families in the United States with low incomes, and to strengthen the capacity of next-generation researchers to conduct rigorous, policy-relevant research in this area. The goal of this work is to learn how tools from behavioral science can be used to deliver programs more effectively, to improve the well-being of children, adults, and families with low incomes. Insights from behavioral economics and from the broader field of behavioral science suggest that applying a deeper understanding of information processing, decision-making, and behavior can improve human services program design and outcomes. Principles from behavioral science can both shed light on decision-making and offer new tools to improve outcomes for program participants. Small changes in the environment can facilitate desired behaviors; planning and commitment devices can be used to improve alignment between intentions and actions; and changed default rules can help lead to positive outcomes.
Research Topics of Interest
As they relate to low-income and other vulnerable populations in the United States, research topics that are of particular interest for this announcement include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Behavioral interventions within the domains of:
- TANF and the safety net;
- Employment and the labor market;
- Job training and education;
- Child welfare and foster care;
- Runaway and homeless youth;
- Housing and homelessness;
- Financial security and economic independence;
- Food assistance;
- Human trafficking;
- Refugee assistance;
- Teen pregnancy prevention and sexual risk avoidance;
- Positive youth development and transition to adulthood;
- Child care;
- Child support;
- Head Start and early childhood education;
- Early childhood home visiting;
- Family strengthening
- Family violence prevention; and
- Healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood;
- Increasing eligible client participation and/or retention in programs and services;
- Increasing eligible client uptake and/or maintenance of public assistance benefits;
- Motivating behaviors related to compliance with program rules and participation in required activities;
- Interventions aimed at sustaining longer-term changes in habits and behaviors;
- The respective impacts of interventions targeting clients versus those targeting caseworkers or program/service providers;
- The respective impacts of interventions at different levels of intensity, from nudges to more systemic behaviorally informed changes;
- The comparative effects of different types of behavioral interventions with the same goals;
- The applicability to other contexts of behavioral interventions previously shown to work in one particular context; and
- Implementation studies to understand how participants experience and respond to behavioral interventions.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Funding: $100,000
- Award Ceiling: $25,000
- Award Floor: $20,000
Project Period
12-month project period and budget period.
Eligible Applicants
- City or township governments
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- County governments
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- State governments
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized
- Special district governments
- Independent school districts
- Small businesses
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
Additional Information on Eligibility
Under section 1110(a)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act, eligibility is open to “…States and public and other organizations and agencies for paying part of the cost of research or demonstration projects such as those…which will help improve the administration and effectiveness of programs carried on or assisted under the Social Security Act and programs related thereto…”. Eligible U.S. entities are the universities at which a graduate student scholar is enrolled. Applicants will be required to submit a letter of support from the graduate student’s mentor, acting as the project’s Principal Investigator, that approves the application and provides a description of how the mentor will regularly monitor the student’s work. Applications that do not include this letter will be disqualified from review and funding. Applications from individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible and will be disqualified from competitive review and funding under this funding opportunity. Faith-based and community organizations that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible to receive awards under this funding opportunity. Faith-based organizations may apply for this award on the same basis as any other organization, as set forth at and, subject to the protections and requirements of 45 CFR Part 87 and 42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq., ACF will not, in the selection of recipients, discriminate against an organization on the basis of the organization’s religious character, affiliation, or exercise.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
