Department of Education Announces New Grant Awards

The Department of Education announced that it will be awarding more than 5,100 grants, totaling around $2.6 billion, to new and existing grantees.  The Fiscal Year 2021 grants, which will be awarded by September 30, 2021, are in addition to funding received due to COVID-19 and will include funding to students and institutions of higher education. 

The grants will be awarded to applicants who best satisfied the Department’s goal to increase equity and educational access across the higher education landscape.  

Supporting Minority-Serving Institutions: The Department is planning to award more than 300 grants in FY2021 to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). More than $500 million will be awarded to HBCUs, more than $65 million will be awarded to TCUs, and nearly $300 million will be awarded to MSIs, totaling close to $1 billion to the nation’s most under-resourced institutions and communities. 

Supporting low-income, first-generation students and individuals with high needs: These grants will go toward helping students progress through their academic career from middle school to graduate school, by awarding funding to the following programs:

• TRIO: More than $1 billion for current and new grantees to help low-income, first-generation, and disabled students navigate the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs;
• Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP): More than $360 million awarded to over 150 partnerships and states, which is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education;
• Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS): Over $22 million awarded in grants, which provide support to student parents to complete their degrees, pursue careers, and lift themselves and their families out of poverty;
• Transition Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities and the National Technical Assistance Coordinating Center: More than $10 million to provide inclusive opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities;
• Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN): More than $20 million in new awards to support academically successful graduate students of low-income backgrounds in courses of study in a field designated as an area of national need; and
• Veteran students: Nearly $14 million to institutions to support veteran student success and develop low- or no-cost open educational resources, such as textbooks and course materials, to students.

Global competitiveness: The Department is awarding an additional $76.6 million to new and existing grantees to fund programs in FY2021 that support global competencies, multilingual communication, and cultural engagement to strengthen the nation’s capacity to meet ever-evolving national security needs. Programs that would benefit from this funding include the American Overseas Research Centers program, the Business and International Education program, the Centers for International Business Education program, and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships program. 
 

For more information, please contact:
Emmanual Guillory