The U.S. Department of Education has announced the opening of the application process for the final two grant categories of the 2014 Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) grant competition, validation andscale-up. The department previously announced the opening of the i3 development grant category application process in March.
Authorized in 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the i3 competition is designed to expand and develop innovative practices that improve student achievement and that prepare students for college and careers. For this year’s competition, the department has stated that, in addition to the competition’s traditional goals, it will give priority consideration to those applications that:
- Improve cost-effectiveness and productivity
- Enable broad adoption of effective practices
- Support novice i3 applicants
In total, the 2014 i3 competition will make available approximately $134 million in funds for the three categories of grants. The “validation” grants will fund applications with “moderate evidence of effectiveness” and provide up to $12 million for each grantee, and the “scale-up” grants will seek to expand projects with “strong evidence of effectiveness” across the country by providing winning applicants up to $20 million. Eligible applicants include local education agencies in partnership with non-profit organizations.
More information on the grant opportunities and the priority considerations can be found on the announcement on the federal register. Applications for each grant category can be found online at Grants.gov or by following these links for “validation” and “scale-up” grants. Applications are due by June 24.
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