The mission of the funder, in this case, involves both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). While specific mission statements are not provided, the NSF generally aims to promote the progress of science and advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, as well as to secure the national defense. The AERA seeks to improve the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.
The AERA Grants Program offers Dissertation Grants to support highly competitive dissertation research that employs rigorous quantitative methods to analyze large-scale education-related data. The program aims to foster significant science using education data, promote equity in STEM, and enhance research capacity in education and learning. It focuses on research that can be generalizable to a national, state, or specific population or subgroup within the dataset it represents. Proposals are encouraged to use major data sets from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, the National Science Foundation, other federal agencies, and large-scale international data systems. Research topics of interest include, but are not limited to, student achievement in STEM, STEM education policies, contextual factors in education, educational participation and persistence, early childhood education and development, postsecondary education, the STEM workforce, and transitions, with a strong emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion across STEM topics. The grant offers a $27,500 stipend, attendance at the AERA Research Conference, and a capstone institute at the AERA Annual Meeting, with funds allocated for research expenses and the encouragement of cost sharing from universities.