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Grants of up to $50,000 to USA, Canada, and International scholars for focused symposia and small research conferences. The symposia and research conferences should advance and build upon best practices in education research in the fields of exploring human learning and thriving, developing high-quality educators and leaders, and innovative research methods.

This program is intended to bring together researchers whose substantive knowledge, theoretical insight, and methodological expertise can be assembled in ways that build upon and advance best practices in education research. These convenings can serve as starting points for building new research agendas or as touchstones for research communities to connect and advance their shared scholarly interests about education research. The Foundation rotates the area of focus for this program annually to generate fresh ideas and perspectives on pressing educational challenges. For the next two funding cycles the Foundation will support conferences related to three topics that emerged from a year-long field engagement with the education research community.

The Foundation invites scholars to share ideas for engaging in dialogue about education research to catalyze innovation, advance the field, and enhance the ability to understand key issues. The meetings the Foundation aims to support can include a broad set of perspectives on topics or education problems connected to one of the three areas of focus listed below:
- Developing High-Quality Educators and Leaders
- Exploring Human Learning and Thriving
- Innovative Research Methods

The Foundation is interested in proposals with thoughtfully designed meetings to address any one of the three topics listed above. One of the strengths of educational research is the way in which scholars engage numerous disciplinary traditions to answer critical questions facing the field. Successful proposals will bring together researchers from the field of education and beyond to approach the proposed topic from multiple perspectives. The Foundation also encourages applicants proposing conferences to consider ways of bridging the substantive, theoretical, and methodological expertise of participants. While not a requirement, successful proposals in previous rounds have also included other attendees outside of the academy such as teachers, policymakers, artists, or journalists if the convening called for such expertise.