Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program Grant

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Spencer Foundation
Amount: Up to US $25,000
Last Updated: June 08, 2025

Summary

The Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program offers $25,000 grants to scholars whose NSF education-related grants have been recently canceled. In response to sudden federal funding cuts, this program aims to support impacted researchers by addressing immediate needs such as data collection and project closure. Collaboratively established with The Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, it prioritizes early-career scholars and seeks to mitigate the adverse effects of funding disruptions.

Overview

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program 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, we have 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.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Each application should be tied to one terminated, education-related NSF grant versus each PI/Co-PI being able to submit applications separately. This also applies to NSF collaborative grants.  To be eligible for these grants, scholars must: be working on research on STEM and education (including AI and CS, graduate education and MSIs, and scholarship that aims to reduce inequality), andhave had a recently terminated or cancelled grant from NSF.

Ineligibility

The Spencer Foundation makes grants to institutions and not individuals.