Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE): Education and Innovation Research (EIR): Mid-Phase Grants CFDA Number 84.411B | ED GRANTS 041020 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for ED GRANTS 041020 001

The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) Education and Innovation Research (EIR) Mid-Phase Grants opportunity (CFDA 84.411B) is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Department of Education to support the expansion and rigorous evaluation of education innovations that are already showing positive results. It sits under section 4611 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended, and its core aim is to improve student achievement and educational attainment for high-need students by funding field-initiated, evidence-based approaches that can be implemented more broadly. While EIR as a whole covers a pipeline from new ideas to scaling proven practices, this specific notice is focused only on Mid-Phase grants, meaning applicants are expected to bring forward an innovation that has moved beyond initial development and early testing and is ready for a larger implementation coupled with a strong evaluation design.

Mid-Phase grants are intended for programs that have already been implemented successfully, either under an earlier EIR Early-Phase grant or under another prior effort that meets similar standards. The Department’s expectation is that Mid-Phase funding will pay for both (1) implementation at a larger scale and (2) a rigorous evaluation to measure impact and, when feasible, cost-effectiveness. A notable element in the program framing is the encouragement to use existing administrative data where possible, which signals an interest in leveraging data systems already maintained by districts, states, or other education entities to reduce burden and improve feasibility while still producing credible evidence. The overall logic is to take solutions that appear to work, test them more robustly in real-world conditions, and produce results that are strong enough to guide broader adoption and investment.

A defining requirement of Mid-Phase EIR is the evidence threshold. Applicants need to be supported by moderate evidence demonstrating a statistically significant positive effect on student outcomes (or other relevant outcomes defined in the official notice). This moderate-evidence requirement must come from at least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study or quasi-experimental design study conducted for at least one population or setting. In practical terms, the Department is looking for applicants that can point to credible prior research showing the innovation has worked, and then propose a Mid-Phase project that both expands the intervention and evaluates it in a way that can further validate results and strengthen the case for replication. The Department also encourages applicants to implement at a regional or national level, reinforcing that Mid-Phase is about reaching substantially more students than earlier pilots and demonstrating that the program can perform beyond a single small context.

Eligibility is broad but specific to education agencies and aligned partners. Eligible lead applicants include local educational agencies (LEAs), state educational agencies (SEAs), the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), consortia of SEAs or LEAs, and nonprofit organizations. The program also allows partnership-based applications where an SEA, LEA, eligible consortium, or the BIE applies in partnership with a nonprofit organization, a business, an educational service agency, or an institution of higher education (IHE). IHEs are explicitly eligible as partners when one of the qualifying entities is the lead applicant submitting the proposal. The notice also clarifies how nonprofit status must be documented under 34 CFR 75.51, including common proof options such as IRS 501(c)(3) recognition, certification from a state authority, or incorporation documents demonstrating nonprofit status. It further notes that a nonprofit affiliated with a public IHE (such as a university foundation) may apply, and that a public IHE with its own 501(c)(3) status could qualify as a nonprofit lead applicant; however, a public IHE without 501(c)(3) status (and without other acceptable documentation under the regulation) cannot serve as the nonprofit applicant for purposes of receiving an EIR award.

The opportunity includes a specific definition for who qualifies as a rural applicant, tied to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) locale codes. To qualify as rural under EIR, the applicant must meet two conditions: first, the applicant must be an LEA with an urban-centric district locale code of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43 (or a consortium of such LEAs, or an educational service agency or nonprofit partnering with such an LEA, or certain grantee-and-SEA partnership arrangements described in the notice). Second, a majority of the schools served by the project must have one of those locale codes (or a combination of them). The notice points applicants to NCES district and school search tools to verify locale codes, and indicates that additional detail on rural eligibility appears in the application package.

From the grant listing information provided, the opportunity number is ED GRANTS 041020 001, the agency is the Department of Education, and the original application closing date was June 15, 2020. The award ceiling listed is $8,000,000, which signals that Mid-Phase projects can be sizable efforts aimed at meaningful scale and strong evaluation work. The synopsis also repeatedly emphasizes that applicants should rely on the official Federal Register notice for the controlling requirements, including priorities, performance measures, application instructions, and submission logistics. It also references the Department’s Common Instructions for Applicants to Department of Education Discretionary Grant Programs (published February 13, 2019) for standard guidance on obtaining and submitting an application. In short, this EIR Mid-Phase competition is geared toward applicants with a proven, research-supported education innovation who are ready to expand implementation and produce rigorous evidence of impact and, where feasible, cost-effectiveness for high-need students at a larger scale.

• The Department of Education in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE): Education and Innovation Research (EIR): Mid-Phase Grants CFDA Number 84.411B" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 84.411.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-04-10.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-06-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $8,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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