Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE): Innovation and Early Learning Programs: Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program Expansion Grants Assistance Listing Number 84.411A

The U.S. Department of Education, through the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, has released a funding opportunity under the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program. The EIR Program is authorized under section 4611 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended. Its purpose is to support entrepreneurial, evidence-based, and field-initiated innovations that aim to improve academic achievement and attainment for high-need students. The program funds efforts to create, implement, replicate, or scale successful education models while also requiring rigorous evaluation of funded projects to ensure impact and accountability. The current notice invites applications specifically for Expansion Grants under Assistance Listing Number 84.411A. This opportunity offers discretionary grant funding and has a focus on education as its category of activity. The program emphasizes innovative practices with demonstrated potential to enhance student outcomes, particularly for students facing economic disadvantage or other barriers. The Department intends to distribute approximately $253,000,000 across an expected four awards. Each award may be as high as $15,000,000, though no award floor is specified. A cost sharing or matching requirement applies to this competition. Applicants should review the Federal Register notice for specific performance measures, priorities, and other requirements to ensure compliance with program objectives. Eligible applicants include a broad range of education and nonprofit entities. Specifically, local educational agencies, state educational agencies, the Bureau of Indian Education, consortia of such agencies, and nonprofit organizations may apply. Partnerships between these primary entities and nonprofits, businesses, educational service agencies, or institutions of higher education are also permitted. For applicants seeking to qualify under the rural designation, specific requirements related to locale codes apply. Nonprofit applicants must demonstrate nonprofit status through IRS recognition, state certification, or incorporation documents. Institutions of higher education are only eligible if they are nonprofit organizations or have formal nonprofit affiliates; public institutions without nonprofit status are not eligible. Applications opened on September 12, 2025, with a deadline for transmittal of applications on October 14, 2025. An intergovernmental review deadline is set for December 11, 2025. Additional competition information is available on the Department’s EIR program website. All applications must follow the Department of Education’s standard discretionary grant program instructions, published in the Federal Register on August 29, 2025. The program does not identify a separate pre-application requirement such as a letter of intent; applicants may proceed directly to submission by the closing date. The opportunity is recurring, as the EIR program is offered in cycles, though the Department noted that not all phases of the competition may be available every year. While this notice pertains only to Expansion Grants, mid-phase grants are announced separately, and early-phase grants are not currently being offered. Applicants should plan ahead for the potential reissuance of this competition in future fiscal years, using this year’s open date as a guide for when the program may reopen. Applicants will be evaluated based on alignment with program purpose, potential for replication or scaling, strength of evidence supporting the proposed innovation, and quality of the evaluation plan. Because this competition funds only Expansion Grants, applicants are expected to demonstrate strong evidence of effectiveness in previous implementations. For questions or technical assistance, applicants may contact Dr. Sonji Jones-Manson at the U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202-5900, by telephone at 202-987-1753, or via email at eir@ed.gov. The official version of this notice is published in the Federal Register and should be consulted for authoritative details.