The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has announced the "Equity-Focused Policy Research: Building Cross-Cutting Evidence on Supports for Families with Young Children" grant program.

The Equity-Focused Policy Research (EFPR) grant program seeks to fund a body of research that illuminates strategies and policies that enhance families’ equitable access to key resources for supporting their children’s healthy development. EFPR grants are guided by a research agenda that focuses on:

• understanding the sources of inequities in families’ access to and use of key resources;
• identifying and testing innovations to advance equity; and
• strategies for scaling up policies and approaches that are effective in advancing equity.

The agenda addresses three policy areas as providing critical resources for families: 

• access to early care and education (ECE);
• income supports (such as the Earned Income Tax Credit [EITC] and cash transfer programs) and income generation/replacement; and
• nutrition supports (such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]).

Funding Information

• The Foundation expect to make up to 20 awards through this funding opportunity. They expect that awards will range from $50,000 to $200,000 each.
• For projects that involve primary data collection through surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, and other methods (or a combination of methods), applicants may request up to $200,000, for a project duration of up to 24 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicant organizations include academic institutions, public entities and private nonprofit organizations, state and local government agencies, and for-profit organizations.
• All organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
• Applicants also may represent partnerships between service providers or practitioners and researchers.

For more information, visit RWJF.