The U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), is accepting applications under ED-GRANTS-080626-002, Research Training Programs in Special Education, Assistance Listing 84.324B.
For FY 2027, NCSER is accepting applications under two programs: Early Career Development and Mentoring and Methods Training for Special Education Research. The Early Career program supports integrated research and career-development plans for early-career investigators focused on learners with or at risk for disabilities. The Methods Training program supports training for current education researchers and, for FY 2027, must focus on analyzing large administrative datasets to address research questions related to learners with or at risk for disabilities.
Deadline: Applications must be received and validated by Grants.gov no later than October 1, 2026 at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time. The September 3, 2026 letter-of-intent date has passed, but the RFA describes the LOI as strongly encouraged rather than a condition of application eligibility. Possible project start dates are July 1 through September 1, 2027.
Funding: Early Career applications may request up to $500,000 in total costs for up to four years. Faculty or research scientists at qualifying non-R1 institutions may request, with justification, up to an additional $200,000, limited to $50,000 per year, for grant administration and management. Methods Training applications may request up to $800,000 in total costs for up to three years. Cost sharing is not required. IES training-grant indirect-cost reimbursement is limited to the recipient’s actual negotiated indirect cost rate or 8 percent of the modified total direct cost base, whichever is less.
Early Career eligibility: Applicant institutions must be academic or non-academic research institutions located in the territorial United States with the capacity to conduct rigorous research. Eligible organizations include nonprofit and for-profit organizations and public and private agencies and institutions, including colleges and universities. The early-career researcher must be the sole PI, must have completed a doctoral degree no earlier than April 1, 2019 and no later than the award start, and must hold or have accepted an eligible research-focused faculty or non-temporary research position. Academic PIs may not have received tenure by the application deadline. If recommended for funding, the PI must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and must not previously have served as PI or Co-PI on an IES research grant. At least one mentor must be at the PI’s home institution, and specified mentor restrictions apply.
Methods Training eligibility: Applicants located in the territorial United States with the ability and capacity to conduct training in scientific research methods may apply. The FY 2027 training must focus on analysis of large administrative datasets related to learners with or at risk for disabilities. All key training personnel must be named in the application, and key personnel may appear on only one FY 2027 Methods Training application. Applicants must document access to the administrative datasets required for training, including appropriate letters, licenses, or agreements.
Required application architecture: Applicants must follow the FY 2027 RFA and the companion IES Application Submission Guide. Required materials include the applicable training-program narrative, an Engagement and Dissemination Plan, Letters of Agreement, Alignment with SEER Standards, and other program-specific appendices. Early Career applications also require a Data Sharing and Management Plan. The training-program narrative is limited to 22 pages for Early Career and 15 pages for Methods Training. Applications must comply with IES formatting, responsiveness, accessibility, human-subjects, biosketch, budget, and research-security requirements.
Atlas fit: This opportunity is highly relevant to special education, disability research, early-intervention research, colleges and universities, research organizations, education agencies, and qualified education-research firms. For-profit organizations are structurally eligible, but a legitimate direct Dr. Miltie pursuit would require substantiated special-education research or methods-training capability, qualified key personnel, eligible PI structure, administrative-data access where applicable, and the complete IES research environment. Preferred posture: Partner-Led / Special Education Research or Methods Training Institution. Organization-specific applicant evaluation and outreach should route to applicable state education, academic-research, special-education, disability, and education-research pathways.