Guidance for Applicants Updated June 9, 2008

Everything you need to apply is on our website, www.wtgrantfdn.org

Contents

4 Before You Start5 Letters of Inquiry 7 Full Proposals 9 Criteria for Funding10 Grant Award and Commencement11 Resources for Applicants16 Tips for Preparing Your Application

Before You Start

•Please review our:• Current Research Interests, • Funding Guidelines and Application Procedures for Research Grants, and •Recent Annual Report essays.

•If you have questions:•Read our Frequently Asked Questions for Research Grants.•If you need more help, email info@wtgrantfdn.org.

•All research grants begin with a letter of inquiry.•A letter of inquiry functions as a mini-proposal and should include sufficient detail about the project’s theoretical background, research questions, design, methods, and analyses, so that reviewers can make an initial evaluation.•Letters of inquiry are reviewed by internal reviewers with social science expertise, but the expertise may not be in an application’s specific area of work. Write your letter with this audience in mind. •Due dates for letters of inquiry are available here.

Letter of Inquiry Stage

•The Foundation will invite a full proposal if we determine that a letter of inquiry:

•Fits the Foundation’s Current Research Interests;•Potentially meets the Foundation’s other Criteria for Funding, listed in the Funding Guidelines and Application Procedures document; and•Is sufficiently developed to warrant a full proposal, containing enough detail to show evidence that the project is beyond the planning phase. For more detail, please refer to the next slide.

Letter of Inquiry Reviews

•Full proposals are reviewed using a rigorous, scientific peer review process involving two external reviewers.

•The Foundation chooses reviewers who collectively have content, methodological, and disciplinary expertise in the proposed work.•Any one reviewer may not have expertise in all areas of the proposed work, so write your proposal with this audience in mind.

Full Proposal Reviews

•Applicants who receive relatively positive reviews are given an opportunity to provide written responses to external reviewers’ critiques of their proposals.

•The Foundation does not necessarily look for applicants to agree with the concerns reviewers express. Instead, applicants should show they have seriously considered reviewer critiques and offer a frank and thorough response. If warranted, applicants can propose to alter their proposed studies to address reviewer concerns.

•Full proposals, external reviews, and applicants’ responses to the reviews then receive further appraisal from the Foundation’s Senior Program Team. The Team makes funding recommendations to the Board of Trustees during tri-annual meetings. Funding is available shortly after these meetings.

Full Proposal Reviews

•Reviewers will look for applications that meet the following criteria:•Research questions posed are a fit with the Foundation’s Current Research Interests. •Project potentially meets the Foundation’s Criteria for Funding, which are outlines below and described fully in our Funding Guidelines and Application Procedures:

•Research area is consistent with Foundation’s Current Research Interests; •Project addresses questions or issues that can inform policy and/or practice;•Project complements and extends prior and concurrent efforts and informs theory;•Project reflects high standards of evidence and rigorous methods, commensurate with the proposal’s goals;•Project demonstrates adequate consideration of the gender, ethnic, and cultural appropriateness of concepts, methods, and measures; and•Project is feasible.

Criteria for Funding

• Full proposals are reviewed by our Board of Trustees at their March, June, and October meetings. Funding for approved awards is available soon after the Board makes their decision, but the release of funds is dependent on the start date of the project.

Grant Award and Commencement

• Foundation staff have written a series of Annual Report essays further outlining our research interests. Reviewing these essays will give applicants a better understanding of the ways in which staff think about our research interests and can help clarify points of confusion.

Resources for Applicants

•Resources for applicants studying settings:

•“Social Setting Theory and Measurement” (here) •Foundation staff discuss their early thoughts about setting theory and setting measurement as important areas in need of further development for better understanding and improving youth’s settings and their effects on youth.

•“A Systems Framework for Understanding Social Settings” (here)•Foundation staff present a systems framework for understanding youths’ social settings, focusing on the social processes, resources, and organization of resources in settings as important forces for understanding how settings affect youth. The paper elaborates on the setting conceptual framework discussed in the above essay.

Social Setting Resources for Applicants

•Resources for applicants studying settings:

•“Doing Social Setting Research” (here) •Foundation staff highlight examples of the types of research studies on youth’s settings we support, including research questions of interest to the Foundation and promising research designs and methods for addressing them.

•“Measuring Social Settings” (here)•Foundation staff discuss our interest in generating more studies that focus on developing and improving measures of various youth settings.

Social Setting Resources for Applicants

•Resources for applicants studying the use of research evidence in policy and practice affecting youth:

•“Studying the Use of Research Evidence in Policy and Practice” (here)•Foundation staff discuss our interest in generating more studies of the use of research evidence in policy and practice and how to improve its use.

•Annotated bibliography (here)•Foundation staff have compiled a brief list of conceptual and empirical work related to studying the use of research evidence. This list is updated routinely.

Use of Research Evidence Resources for Applicants

•Resources for applicants studying the use of research evidence in policy and practice affecting youth:

•Using Evidence (2007) •Sandra Nutley, Isabel Walters, and Huw T.O. Davies review research on how evidence is used in policy and practice and how its use can be improved.

•“Learning More about How Research-Based Knowledge Gets Used: A Working Paper for the William T. Grant Foundation” (forthcoming in 2008)

•In a commissioned paper aimed at researchers, Huw Davies and Sandra Nutley draw upon their prior review work to offer insights and guidance to would-be researchers interested in studying research use. They also offer recommendations for future research questions and methods.

Use of Research Evidence Resources for Applicants

•Focus on tackling a few research questions or hypotheses well

•Reviewers often read applications that try to tackle too many questions or questions that do not fit together cohesively.

•We believe it is more valuable for a study to address a few important research questions well than to address many research questions and/or hypotheses with less rigor.

Tips for Preparing Your Application

•All studies have their strengths and weaknesses. A strong application includes convincing arguments about its strengths, but it does not over-promise and it shows an understanding of the study’s limits.

•Reviewers recognize that some research designs and methods are better suited than others for addressing certain research questions. Make a convincing case that your proposed design and methods would provide strong evidence on your particular questions.

•At the same time, also demonstrate your understanding of the limits of your research methods and analyses and the conclusions that can be drawn from them. This provides reviewers with assurances that you understand the nuances and challenges of the work.

Tips for Preparing Your Application

•Provide enough information about your research design, methods, and analysis plan for reviewers to evaluate whether they meet the General Criteria for Funding, found in the Funding Guidelines and Application Procedures for Research Grants (here).

•At the letter of inquiry stage, provide enough information for reviewers to gauge the likely rigor of the proposed work and to be convinced that the project is ready to move to the full proposal stage.

•At the full proposal stage, you will have more space to fully describe your project. Include sufficient details about your design, methods, and analysis plan for reviewers to thoroughly evaluate them.

Tips for Preparing Your Application

•If you are proposing to use an existing dataset, provide assurances about the quality of the data for addressing the research questions.

•If your study falls under our interest in settings, make a convincing case that the data on key settings constructs was collected using strong measures.

Tips for Writing Your Application

•Take the time to review the writing and organization of your application

•Consider using headings and sub-headings to help reviewers find sections and topics.

•Consider whether the application is understandable to reviewers who may not have expertise in all areas of the proposed work. Avoid unnecessary jargon.

•Review the Foundation’s Criteria for Funding in the Funding Guidelines and Application Procedures (here), and make sure you have made a strong case that the study meets those criteria.

•Leave enough time to have trusted colleagues review and provide feedback on your application, multiple times if necessary

Tips for Writing Your Application

You may apply again with a new letter of inquiry, but in it you will need to convincingly address prior concerns expressed by reviewers and the Foundation.

If you do notreceive funding . . .