Work and Work-Life Policies and Programs
Employment, labour conditions, care work, and work–family policy.
39 opportunities · 15 traditional · 24 nontraditional
Traditional (15)
- Sociology ProgramFederal grantNational Science FoundationBasic research on social organisation, institutions, stratification and social processes. The NSF home most compatible with structural social work questions that are not framed as health research.$100k–$500k · Rolling / open
- Research and evaluation grantsFederal grantOffice of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and FamiliesFederal research on child care, child welfare, Head Start, TANF and family self-sufficiency, including the Child Care Research Scholars awards that fund dissertations with a state agency partner.Amount not published · Periodic calls
- Research grants and visiting scholarsFoundation grantRussell Sage FoundationSocial science on inequality, mobility, race and ethnicity, immigration, and the future of work — plus a residential visiting scholar year that is one of the few funded writing years in the social sciences.up to $200k · Several times a year · Jan, May, Aug
- Academic research grantsFoundation grantWashington Center for Equitable GrowthResearch on whether and how economic inequality affects growth and stability, covering labour markets, care work, wage-setting and the macroeconomics of family policy.up to $100k · Annual cycle · Jan, Feb
- Core Research Grants — Social, Political, and Economic InequalityFoundation grantRussell Sage FoundationSupports social science research on the causes and consequences of rising economic inequality, including work on poverty, wages, safety-net policy and political and social stratification in the United States.$50k–$200k · Several times a year · Mar, Jul, Oct
- Building Evidence: Support for QEDs to Evaluate Social Programs and PoliciesFoundation grantArnold VenturesFunds quasi-experimental causal evaluations of social programs and policies. The Public Finance strand explicitly seeks studies of state responses to benefit cliffs and their effects on employment, earnings and economic mobility.Amount not published · Annual cycle · Sep
- AmeriCorps Maryland Notices of Funding Opportunity (including Workforce Development Planning Grants)Training & capacityMaryland Department of Service and Civic InnovationMaryland's cabinet-level service department runs three AmeriCorps subgrant lines: competitive operational grants, formula operational grants, and a Workforce Development Planning Grant that funds a six-month design period for a new AmeriCorps programme built around a defined member career pathway. The planning grant is the notable one for research partnerships — it pays for programme design, needs assessment and measurement architecture rather than member positions, which is precisely the work a social work researcher is equipped to do alongside a community agency.up to $240k · Annual cycle · Feb, Apr, May
- Quality of Life Grants ProgramFoundation grantChristopher & Dana Reeve FoundationTiered grants to nonprofits for projects serving people living with paralysis. Tiers run from open-purpose Direct Effect awards through targeted priority tiers (assistive technology, disaster preparedness, respite and caregiving, rural underserved populations, employment, nursing home transition) to Expanded Impact awards for proven prior grantees.$5k–$100k · Several times a year
- Building Communities of Recovery (BCOR)Federal grantSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)Funds recovery community organisations to deliver peer recovery support services led by people with lived experience of substance use and co-occurring disorders, plus housing and employment linkage. Requires client-level SPARS data at intake, 6 months and closeout.up to $350k per year · Periodic calls · Jul
- Siegel Family Endowment grantmakingFoundation grantSiegel Family EndowmentTech-derived family foundation funding academic research projects, mission-driven programmes and policy institutions across three areas: Learning, Work, and Infrastructure, with an explicitly inquiry-driven grantmaking method.$100–$3M · By invitation
- Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholars ProgramFellowshipRussell Sage FoundationA residential year at the Foundation's New York headquarters for scholars doing data analysis and writing on RSF priority areas. Provides salary replacement, office space, computing and subsidised housing.up to $150k per year · Annual cycle · Jun
- Early Career GrantsEarly-career awardWashington Center for Equitable GrowthGrants for doctoral students, postdocs and untenured faculty studying how economic inequality affects growth and stability, including work on wages, the safety net and household economic security.$15k–$30k · Annual cycle
- Forte Project GrantsFoundation grantForte – Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and WelfareForte is Sweden's national research council for health, working life and welfare — the closest institutional match in Europe to a social work research funder. The annual project grant is a free-standing, investigator-initiated three-year grant: applicants formulate their own question anywhere inside Forte's remit, which explicitly covers social policy, social services, welfare provision, the labour market, public health and care organisation. Proposals are assessed by nine subject panels, several of which (social policy, welfare services, working life) map directly onto social work scholarshipAmount not published · Annual cycle · Jan, Feb, Mar
- Research for Future Skills, Education and Working LifeFoundation grantResearch Council of Norway (Forskningsrådet)Norway's national research council runs this call off its welfare-and-education portfolio plan, and the four themes — education and working life in transition, competence and skills development, learning and inclusion in education, and inclusive and well-functioning working life — read as a social work and social policy agenda. Grants are substantial and long: three to six years of funding for a full project team. Relevant for school social work, transitions out of care and into employment, labour-market inclusion of disabled and migrant populations, and workforce studies of the welfare servicAmount not published · Annual cycle · May
- Immigrant Rights and Workers' Rights grantmakingFoundation grantRosenberg FoundationCalifornia-focused grantmaking supporting leadership development, policy advocacy and grassroots organising on immigrant rights and workers' rights, including capacity for community organisations working with the state's immigrant residents.Amount not published · Rolling / open
Nontraditional (24)
- NEA Foundation Learning and Leadership GrantsTraining & capacityNEA Foundation (affiliated with the National Education Association)Grants from the union-affiliated NEA Foundation for individual professional development or group collegial learning, with action research named explicitly as a supported group activity. Useful to school social workers and other specialized instructional support personnel who want to fund a study group, an inquiry project, or conference travel tied to practice improvement.up to $5k · Annual cycle · Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- Truist Foundation Inspire Awards (Year 4)Prize or challengeMIT Solve / Truist FoundationAn open innovation challenge for nonprofits serving adult workers in the age of AI. Fifteen semifinalists get $10,000 capacity-building grants; top awards reach $250,000. A researcher's route in is as an evaluation partner to an applicant.$10k–$250k · Annual cycle · Jun, Jul, Aug
- Philadelphia Works Procurement and Open RFPsEvaluation contractPhiladelphia Works, Inc. (Philadelphia's local workforce development board)Philadelphia's local workforce board runs an open-competition procurement process and currently has two live RFPs, including one for advisory and strategic development consulting services.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- Washington Center for Equitable Growth Research Grants (including Early Career Grants)Early-career awardWashington Center for Equitable GrowthGrants for policy-relevant research on how inequality affects economic growth, with a standing emphasis on labor market dynamics: bargaining power, wage stagnation, job mobility, paid leave, schedule stability, and unemployment insurance. Recent topical calls have covered the labor effects of AI adoption and of the Inflation Reduction Act.$15k–$30k · Annual cycle
- CPWR Small Study ProgramPilot / seed fundingCPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training (the research arm of North America's Building Trades Unions)Seed funding from the building-trades unions' research center to test promising construction safety and health research or practical interventions. The page frames it as the on-ramp to larger projects and notes that over 60 percent of funded researchers have published in peer-reviewed journals.up to $30k · Rolling / open
- CHPRD Community Grant ProgramsEvaluation contractNew Jersey Department of State, Center for Hispanic Policy, Research and DevelopmentA state office dedicated to Hispanic policy and research posts an annual slate of competitive awards to community agencies serving New Jersey's Latino communities, solicited and submitted through the state's SAGE system.$50k–$75k · Annual cycle · Jan, Mar
- Connecting Talent to Opportunity ChallengePrize or challengeU.S. Department of EducationA large federal ideation prize competition to develop integrated state 'Talent Marketplaces' linking people's skills and credentials to education and job opportunities. Relevant to workforce and employment-services research.up to $15M · Periodic calls · Jan
- Hispanic Impact Fund GrantPrize or challengeAustin Community FoundationA Central Texas Latino-focused fund that awards unrestricted general operating support in a tiered winner, runner-up and semifinalist structure across four strategy areas.$22k–$56k · Annual cycle · Jun, Jul
- Farm Aid grant programFoundation grantFarm AidGrants to organizations serving family farmers, explicitly including farm advocates, legal support, mental health services, hotlines, and emergency assistance — a rare direct source for rural agricultural behavioural health work.$5k–$10k · By invitation · Nov, Dec
- Seal of DistinctionPrize or challengeCall of Duty EndowmentAn award for nonprofits that place veterans in quality jobs, judged on documented placement, performance and cost data. The Seal carries a $30,000 award and is the gateway to the Endowment's larger restricted grants.$30k · Periodic calls
- Boston Impact Initiative Integrated CapitalParticipatory grantmakingBoston Impact InitiativeA place-based integrated-capital fund investing in small businesses, cooperatives, worker-owned enterprises, Black- and Latino-owned enterprises, and community-owned or governed real estate across New England. It is a leading practical example of the integrated-capital approach that blends debt, equity and grant-like instruments in a single package, and thus both a capital source for community partners and a live case for research on reparative and place-based finance.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- Seed Commons Non-Extractive LoansTraining & capacitySeed Commons: A Community Wealth CooperativeA national network of locally rooted loan funds making explicitly non-extractive loans — repayment is structured so it never exceeds the wealth the borrower's enterprise actually generates, and no personal collateral is at risk. This is the participatory-finance end of impact investing and a direct object of study for social work research on community wealth building, as well as a capital source for the worker cooperatives and community organizations that such research is conducted with.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- The CARE FundParticipatory grantmakingThe CARE Fund (Care for All with Respect and Equity)A philanthropic collaboration pooling resources to improve the livelihoods of paid and unpaid caregivers and the quality of care across generations. Stated targets are public investment in paid family and medical leave, early care and education, aging and disability care, and quality care jobs, which is squarely the evidence terrain of care-work research.Amount not published · By invitation
- James Irvine Foundation Grantmaking (Better Careers, Fair Work, Just Prosperity)Foundation grantThe James Irvine FoundationA California funder whose entire goal statement is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. Its initiatives are Better Careers, connecting Californians to jobs with family-sustaining wages, and Fair Work, advancing fairness, dignity, and respect for California workers, alongside Just Prosperity and place-based Priority Communities grantmaking.Amount not published · By invitation
- WorkSafeBC Research Grants Program (Innovation Grants, Research Training Awards, Ralph McGinn Postdoctoral Fellowships)Federal grantWorkSafeBC (Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia)A workers' compensation board research program funding occupational health and safety work through several streams: innovation grants for applied, prototype, and exploratory projects; training awards for master's and doctoral students; a postdoctoral fellowship; and commissioned work on specific priorities and systematic reviews.Amount not published · Annual cycle · Oct
- KYSTATS Data Request ServiceIn-kind resourceKentucky Center for StatisticsKentucky's state longitudinal data agency fulfils custom data requests, including linked education-to-workforce records, for outside researchers. Aggregate requests are usually free, making this a research input rather than a cash award.Not a cash award · Rolling / open
- OEWD Bid and Funding OpportunitiesEvaluation contractSan Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development (City and County of San Francisco)San Francisco's workforce and economic development office posts its RFPs and RFQs here; two solicitations were live when checked. It is a city-agency route into workforce contracting rather than a grant competition.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board Contracting Opportunities (WEBS)Evaluation contractWashington State Workforce Training and Education Coordinating BoardWashington's Workforce Board is the state's independent evaluator of the workforce system, and it buys outside research and analysis through competitively bid contracts posted on the state's WEBS procurement system.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- Texas Workforce Commission Procurement OpportunitiesEvaluation contractTexas Workforce CommissionThe state workforce agency for Texas posts its competitive solicitations here, including Requests for Qualification used specifically for professional services — the usual vehicle for research and evaluation work.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County Procurement and Bidders ListEvaluation contractWorkforce Solutions for Tarrant County (local workforce development board, Texas)A local Texas workforce board that contracts out community service delivery and posts procurements here. Its standing bidders list is the practical way to hear about solicitations that never circulate more widely.Amount not published · Rolling / open
- Federal Statistical Research Data Centers (FSRDC) project accessIn-kind resourceU.S. Census Bureau and partner federal statistical agenciesSecure physical and remote enclaves where approved researchers analyse restricted-access federal microdata, including censuses, surveys, linked employer-employee data and federal and state administrative records.Not a cash award · Rolling / open
- Business Women's Giving CircleParticipatory grantmakingCommunity Foundation for Northern VirginiaA donor giving circle at a community foundation whose members pool funds and choose grantees supporting business innovation, entrepreneurship and inventive opportunities for women and girls in Northern Virginia.Amount not published · Annual cycle · Sep
- Families and Workers FundFoundation grantFamilies and Workers FundA pooled donor fund making grants and building partnerships in two areas: 21st Century Benefits, which works to streamline access to public benefits such as healthcare, childcare, and food assistance, and Uplifting Careers, which supports inclusive workforce development and employer investment in workers. Both lines routinely involve implementation research and evaluation partners.Amount not published · Varies by programme
- The Workers Lab Innovation FundPilot / seed fundingThe Workers LabAn early-stage investment fund for worker-centered innovations. The page lists research initiatives alongside technology products, worker cooperatives, organizing efforts, legal protections, job training, and policy advocacy as the kinds of ideas it backs, making it one of the few worker-movement funds that will consider a research or evidence-building project as the innovation itself.Amount not published · Varies by programme
Other clusters
- Adolescent and Youth Development
- Aging Services and Gerontology
- American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Global Indigenous Populations (Indigenous Cluster)
- Asian and Asian-Pacific Islander Focused-Research
- Black and African Diaspora Focused-Research
- Child Welfare
- Communities and Neighborhoods
- Crime and Criminal Justice
- Disability
- Gender
- Gender-Based Violence
- Health
- History
- Inequality, Poverty, and Social Welfare Policy
- International Social Work and Global Issues
- Immigrants and Refugees
- LatinX Focused-Research
- Mental Health
- Military Service Members, Veterans and Their Families
- Organizations and Management
- Race and Ethnicity
- Research Design and Measurement
- Research on Social Work Education
- School Social Work
- Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
- Social Work Practice
- Substance Misuse and Addictive Behaviors
- Sustainable Development, Environmental and Climate Justice