WCER Sample Proposal Library (SamPL)

WCER maintains a library of funded proposals submitted by our UW investigators to federal and foundation grantmakers. These proposals are available to current faculty, staff, and students in the UW–Madison School of Education as examples of successful grant writing. The investigators who donate their proposals for this library are helping WCER live into its values of continuous improvement, innovation, and excellence. To share a proposal, please contact the WCER Editing Team.

The sponsors for which we have sample proposals are listed below.

To request access to a proposal

Email WCER Editing Team stating your name, affiliation with UW–Madison School of Education, and the proposal you would like to access. Once access is granted, our staff will email you a link to the proposal.

Federal Sponsors

Some of the proposals in SamPL may use outdated programmatic guidelines or guidelines specific to a particular topic or funding year. Always refer to the current program-related guidelines when writing your proposal.

U.S. Department of Education (DoED)

2015 (Good). Javits Gifted & Talented Students Program; $2.1M

Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

2015 (Christensen). Enhanced Assessment Grant 84.368A. Advancing ALTELLA; $1M
2018 (Asmus). Empirical analysis of problem-solving teams to improve team functioning and student outcomes; $361K
2019 (Christensen). Enhanced Assessment Grant 84.368A. Advancing ALTELLA; $4M
2019 (Wilkerson). Addressing emergency certification in rural education settings (Project ACRES) [resubmission, incl. response to reviewers]; $1.4M
2020 (Kaplan). Bayesian dynamic borrowing: A method for utilizing historical data in education research; $802K
2021 (Nguyen). English Acquisition State Grant 84.365. Rural educators self-reflecting and practicing equity-centered teaching with English learners; $2.7M
2021 (Kaplan). Bayesian probabilistic forecasting with international large-scale assessment [resubmission, incl. response to reviewers]; $897K

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Sample proposals awarded from NSF are listed below. When writing your proposal, please always consult the most current NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide.

2014 (Wang). Factors influencing transfer in STEM fields from two-year to four-year institutions; $1.4M
2015 (Vlach). ECR / The role of timing in children’s science learning; $530K
2016 (Wang). Preparing faculty toward math contextualization for student success in advanced technological education; $800K
2017 (Shaffer). AISL / Local environmental modeling: A toolkit for incorporating place-based learning into virtual internships - A scalable, informal STEM learning environment; $2M
2018 (Matthews). Cultivating knowledge of mathematical equivalence; $671K
2019 (Rau). Support for individual and collaborative learning of internal visualization skills for complex engineering concepts in active learning classes; $300K
2020 (Shaffer). ECR / nCoder+ - A tool for subgroup-fair coding of STEM learning data at scale; $2.5M
2021 (Wolfgram). Racial Equity in STEM / Longitudinal mixed-methods study of the STEM experiences of Hmong American college students; $2.2M
2022 (Eagan). ECR: BCSER / Building capacity for equitable research on STEM learning processes using quantitative ethnography; $1M
2023 (Ruis). DRK-12 / actLocal - A platform for developing localized simulations to support interactive learning about climate change; $3M

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

2020 (Lashley). UW Community Arts Collaboratory Research Lab; $146K

Non-Federal Sponsors (Foundations)

Sample proposals awarded from several foundations are listed below in alphabetical order. These proposals may have been written using older, outdated guidelines. Always refer to the current program-related guidelines when writing your proposal.

Futures Forum on Learning

2021 (Wright). Learning Engineering Tools Competition / Scaffolding students’ experience with assessment results; $250K

Spencer Foundation

2021 (Bal). Implementation and sustainability of a culturally responsive behavioral support system to address the racialization of school discipline; $50K

Wallace Foundation

2021 (Halverson, R.) A CALL for equity-centered leadership; $8M

Need Assistance?

WCER SamPL: Collection of funded research proposals submitted by our UW investigators.

More Funded Proposals: In addition to proposals by our investigators, WCER collects publicly available samples of funded research proposals by investigators from other U.S. institutions.

WCER Grant Notification Services: To subscribe to our electronic mailing list containing education-related grant opportunities, send a message to editingteamwcer@g-groups.wisc.edu.

Grant Writing & Management Support: Please go to MyWCER Grants & Contracts page for more information on grant writing, management support, FAQs, and other resources.

WCER’s Proposal Editing Services