October 6, 2020
In August, the Department of Education issued a notice inviting applications for Institutional Resilience and Expanded Postsecondary Opportunity (IREPO) Grants. The purpose of the IREPO Grants is to provide financial support to institutions of higher education with the greatest unmet needs related to coronavirus to enable them to resume operations, serve the needs of students, reduce disease transmission, and develop more resilient instructional delivery models, such as distance learning, to continue educating students who cannot or choose not to attend classroom-based instruction due to coronavirus. Funding can be used to defray expenses (including lost revenue, reimbursement for expenses already incurred, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education, faculty and staff trainings, payroll) incurred by institutions of higher education and for grants to students for any component of the student’s cost of attendance, including food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care. Eligible institutions of higher education (public and not-for-profit institutions) that have received less than $500,000 collectively from other HEERF grants are encouraged to apply. The Department of Education expects to award approximately 19 grants ranging from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000.
Among other elements, proposals must include (1) metrics by which the institution would measure its success in implementing the project and improving student outcomes, (2) proposed project-specific performance measure and performance targets (as well as baseline data), and (3) methods for data collection and reporting. This is where VIA can help! If you are submitting a proposal and need help developing an evaluation plan, contact us at 716.362.0627.
Proposals are due on October 20, 2020! (Letters of intent were due on September 10, but don’t worry–you are not required to have submitted a letter of intent to apply.)
The full notice is available here.
Written by: Rebekah Kimble
