Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program -- May 30 deadline

Note: This is not a limited submission and is being announced as a courtesy only.

In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, the Spencer Foundation has developed a rapid response bridge grant opportunity for impacted scholars, in collaboration with The Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF. While it is impossible for private philanthropy to close the gap left by federal funders, we can provide modest grants to mitigate some of the impact on scholars, projects, and project teams. These $25,000 grants are for activities to address immediate needs following grant cancellations, including completing a wave of data collection, analyzing already collected data or writing, thoughtful project closure with community partners, or preparing grant proposals to continue the research. To be eligible for these grants, scholars must: (1) be working on research on STEM and education (including AI and CS, graduate education and MSIs, and scholarship that aims to reduce inequality), and (2) have had a recently terminated or cancelled grant from NSF. Where possible, we will prioritize early-career scholars.

Application Instructions

Please provide:

• The original funded proposal
• Your NSF termination letter 
• A 2–3-page (no more than 1200 words) narrative memo describing the plan for activities to be completed over a 6-month period.
• A budget for a maximum $25,000 (no indirect costs). We ask that scholars ask for only what they need within this limit, and to note if they have access to bridging funds at their university. Our goal is to fund as many people as possible with our limited funds.

Please send these materials to RapidResponse@spencer.org with Rapid Response in the subject line.

There will be two deadlines for requests: May 30, 2025 and June 13, 2025 (12:00 p.m. Central). Principal Investigators may only apply once. Decisions for the May cycle will be made by June 15. Decisions for the June cycle will be made by June 30.