Last week the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education announced that applications for new discretionary grants under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Comprehensive Program are now available. According the Federal Register notice announcing the awards, the Comprehensive Program “supports innovative grants and cooperative agreements to improve postsecondary education. It supports reforms, innovations, and significant improvements of postsecondary education that respond to problems of national significance and serve as national models.”

Institutions of higher education (IHE) or combinations of IHEs and other public and private nonprofit institutions and agencies are eligible to apply. Approximately $20 million in grants will be available (pending Congressional appropriation). Grants will range from $500,000–$750,000 over three years, with $150,000-$200,000 being awarded for the first year. The Department estimates that 28 grants will be awarded.

There are three competitive and two invitational priorities that applicants should be aware of:

Competitive Preference Priorities (applicants can receive up to an additional two points for each priority met):

1. Increasing postsecondary success
2. Enabling more data-based decision-making
3. Improving productivity

Invitational Priorities:

1. Curriculum alignment
2. Reducing instructional costs

The deadline to apply is May 23, 2011.

Tags: Data, federal grants, funding, Post Secondary Access and Affordability, postsecondary

This entry was posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 7:17 am and is filed under Public Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.