NEA Research Labs, FY2020 | NEAPS1901

Opportunity Information: Apply for NEAPS1901

The NEA Research Labs, FY2020 grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number NEAPS1901) is a discretionary funding program from the National Endowment for the Arts that supports the creation or continuation of research "labs" that function as hubs or centers of excellence around a clearly defined arts-related research domain. Rather than funding a single stand-alone study, the NEA is looking for an organized, sustained research effort: each lab is expected to conduct at least one major study during the award period while also building a pipeline of additional projects or products that extend the lab's core agenda. In practice, this means applicants need to show they are not only capable of producing one strong piece of research, but also have the leadership, partnerships, data access, and infrastructure to keep generating useful research outputs over time.

A key feature of these labs is responsiveness. During the cooperative agreement period, each lab must be prepared to handle ad hoc analyses or information requests related to the research agenda, if the NEA requests them. These requests are explicitly limited to analyses that do not require new data collection, so applicants should plan around the ability to quickly analyze existing primary data they already have or can access, or secondary data sources that are already available. This signals that the NEA values labs that can serve as reliable analytical resources during the award window, not just teams that can complete a single pre-planned research task.

The NEA prioritizes applications that propose a coherent series of theory-driven studies designed to produce meaningful, defensible evidence about the impact of the arts within the chosen topic area. Strong proposals are expected to be grounded in existing research and to articulate a clear theoretical framework that motivates the research questions, study designs, and measures. The NEA emphasizes rigorous methodologies, including quasi-experimental and experimental approaches when appropriate, as well as analyses using primary and/or secondary data. At the same time, the solicitation leaves room for modern or emerging methods, explicitly welcoming approaches such as rigorous organizational or social network analysis, social media data analysis, and statistically driven meta-analyses. The agency also highlights interest in translational research, meaning work that takes scientific evidence and turns it into practical, standardized arts-related projects, models, tools, or techniques that can be adopted and used by other practitioners and researchers with relative ease.

In terms of award structure and timing, funding is provided through a Cooperative Agreement (not a standard grant), which typically implies more ongoing involvement from the federal agency in guiding or coordinating aspects of the work. The period of performance is flexible within limits: the award will begin no earlier than March 1, 2020, and must last at least 12 months but can extend up to 24 months. There is also an application restriction: an organization may submit only one proposal under this solicitation, so institutions with multiple internal teams interested in applying would need to coordinate and consolidate into a single submission.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of public and nonprofit entities: state, county, city/township, and special district governments; independent school districts; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; and 501(c)(3) nonprofits other than higher education institutions. The program sits within the Arts funding activity category and is listed under CFDA 45.024. The original application closing date was July 15, 2019. The listed award ceiling is $150,000, and the opportunity record indicates expected awards were not specified in the provided data.

Overall, this opportunity is aimed at organizations that can credibly operate as research anchors in a specific arts impact area: building a multi-project agenda grounded in prior evidence and theory, executing at least one substantial study with rigorous methods, producing outputs that can inform both research and practice, and remaining ready to deliver timely analyses using existing data when the NEA needs answers during the project period.

• The National Endowment for the Arts in the arts sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NEA Research Labs, FY2020" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 45.024.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-05-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-07-15. (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 $150,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for NEAPS1901

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