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Funding Opportunities

Current Research Interests

The Foundation supports research that enhances our understanding of:

  1. How youth settings work, how they affect youth development, and how they can be improved; and
  2. When, how, and under what conditions research evidence is used in policy and practice that affect youth, and how its use can be improved.

Our goal is to fund high-quality research to understand and improve the everyday settings of youth ages 8 to 25 in the United States. We define settings as the social environments in which youth experience daily life. These settings include environments with clear boundaries such as classrooms, schools, and youth-serving organizations and environments with less prescribed boundaries such as neighborhoods or other settings in which youth interact with peers, family members, and other adults. At their best, these settings embed youth within a network of engaging activities; ample resources; meaningful relationships with adults and peers; and opportunities for academic, social, emotional, and identity development.

For more information, download our current research interests document. 
Research Interests and Guidelines

Before considering an application, review our current research interests.The following guidelines explain the relationships between biology, interventions, measurement, policy and practice, and our current research interests. Applicants interested in these areas are advised to review the documents thoroughly.