The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York is pleased to announce a new round of grants to be awarded by the Social Mobility Lab, whose mission is to discover new ways to accelerate and expand opportunity for our students, their families, and the communities they represent.
To that end, we share this call for proposals to faculty and doctoral students interested in exploring questions related to social mobility.
Research focus
For the purpose of this call for proposals, mobility may be defined not just by wealth, income, and economic measures, but also by measures of quality of life, increased security and freedom, and opportunities for people to live the lives they desire.
Over the first two rounds of the Lab’s grant-making history, awarded projects have focused on a variety of issues and topics related to social mobility, including:
— Rethinking the concept of social mobility: several projects seek to broaden our understanding of social mobility beyond economic and financial measurements.
— Effective supports: what are the tools that support the upwardly mobile and, in particular, students?
— Family dynamics: what is the role of family support in social mobility? In turn, how does social mobility impact relations among family members?
— The role of CUNY and other public institutions of higher education as engines of social mobility: what makes them successful? What are some of the tools they use that drive upward social mobility among their students?
For more information on the research conducted by our previous grantees, please visit https://colinpowellschool.ccny.cuny.edu/social-mobility-lab/sml-grantees/
These are only examples of the kind of research the Social Mobility Lab wishes to support. Interested applicants should feel free to submit projects on questions and issues beyond these explored by past grantees. Alongside these and many other empirical questions, the Lab is interested in conceptual and theoretical questions related to social mobility. We welcome proposals from scholars in any discipline, and the Social Mobility Lab intends to support work from across the disciplines, as well as work that is designed to be interdisciplinary. Proposals for translational research will be given priority.
Eligibility and types of awards
All faculty and doctoral students at colleges and universities are eligible to apply.
This cycle of grants will support up to six projects. Each project will be supported with up to US$10,000.
Awards may be used for expenses directly related to the research project, including but not limited to: salaries or stipends for principal researcher(s) and research assistants, tuition or methods training courses, participant compensation, travel expenses for conference or research purposes, payment to other providers, supplies, etc. Grants cannot be used for course releases.
To apply
Please submit your application at this portal, providing the following information:
1/ Your CV. Applications can come from individuals or teams of researchers; if the latter, please include CVs for the PI and co-PIs.
2/ Short description of your project (2-3 sentences) in plain, non-academic language.
3/ Project description (max. 2,000 words, including references). Please address the project’s questions, methodologies, relevance, and potential impact. Specifically, share your thoughts on how potential findings from your research might translate into knowledge that can increase opportunities for others to move up in life. Please signal the kind(s) of products — research and otherwise — likely to come from the work (e.g., articles, books, art, media, video). Also, please position the project in relation to your other work and your overall ambitions as a scholar.
4/ Budget and timeline, not to exceed one page, to understand the types of support needed for the project and the expected timeline for research and completion.
5/ If the project requires IRB approval, please make clear in your application whether you have already applied for or received IRB approval.
Deadline and timeline
The deadline for applications is Sunday, March 22, 2025, at 11:59pm EST.
Applications will be reviewed by a committee composed of the Lab’s staff and members of the Lab’s Advisory Committee. Awards will be announced on April 13, 2026, during the Social Mobility Lab’s Annual Summit at The City College of New York. The grant period is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027; grant recipients will be permitted to request an extension on use of funds of up to one year.
Please note that recipients of Social Mobility Lab grants will be expected to participate in the activities of the Lab in the 2026-2027 academic year, including brown bag lunches with all grantees (6-8 throughout the year; virtual attendance possible) and the Annual Summit in spring 2027.
New grantees will also be expected to attend, in person or virtually, the 2026 Annual Summit, to be held on April 13, 2026 at The City College of New York, during which the 2026-2027 grantees will be announced to the public. Awardees will be notified in advance, but please make sure to save the date if you are applying to this grant opportunity.
If you have questions, please reach out to Pierre Losson, the Lab’s Associate Director, at plosson@ccny.cuny.edu
About the Social Mobility Lab – The Social Mobility Lab at the Colin Powell School, City College of New York aims to discover new ways to accelerate and expand opportunity for our students, their families and the communities they represent. The Lab supports research, teaching, public discussions, and experimentation — all geared to promote a better understanding of social mobility and the role higher education plays in advancing it. The Lab is unique among organizations focused on social mobility, because it is community-based and geared toward implementation of solutions: as we learn, we will translate that knowledge into programs and practices to help our students move up in life and will engage the people and communities who can most benefit from what we are doing at every stage of our work.
