Update

Game-Friendly Fund Opens New Grant Round

SBIR_GrantsOver the last couple of years the Department of Education has focused many of its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants in the area of edtech and game-based learning. This week, the Department opened its newest round of grant-making.

The request for proposals can be found (kind of buried) on the Department of Education site or you can download the Word Doc here.

The request for proposals once again stresses the interest in technology and the Department of Education also published a set of priorities for this latest round of funding with a heavy focus on so-called Research/Research & Development (R/R&D). There priorities include:

  1. R/R&D of education technology products used by students or teachers (or other instructional personnel) in authentic education settings; or
  2. R/R&D of education technology products for use by infants, toddlers, or students with or at risk for disabilities, or teachers (or other personnel, related services providers, or family members) in authentic early intervention or special education settings; or
  3. R/R&D of education technology products for use by school administrators in authentic education settings or authentic early intervention or special education settings.

As we have reported in the past, the SBIR program is looking for impact but also willing to invest in longer-term payoffs.

Then-director of the SBIR program Ed Metz told us in 2014, “Now it’s not a question of whether [games] are appropriate, but how we can optimize games for learning and teaching. The cultural has changed.”

Metz said that more than half of the SBIR investments have been focused on learning games and developers have seen the real benefit of pursuing support from the government.

“Other developers see that and they find out they got $850,000 from a government program that gave them the funding to take 2 years to complete rigorous research that allowed their game to be based in the classroom and have an impact on learning sciences,” said Metz.

The developer retains all intellectual property funded by the grant and instead it is focused on supporting research that ensures the games will have the educational impact the developer seeks.

The proposal is due by January 5, 2017.

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Lee Banville Lee Banville is editor of Gamesandlearning.org. He is also an Professor of Journalism at The University of Montana. For 13 years he ran the online and digital operations of the PBS NewsHour, overseeing coverage of domestic and international stories.