Center to Support Research and Evaluation Capacity of Child Care and Development Fund Lead Agencies

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is soliciting applications for a 5-year cooperative agreement that will fund a Center to Support Research and Evaluation Capacity of Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies (hereafter referred to as “Center”). Specifically, the Center will build research and evaluation capacity in the child care subsidy policy field by facilitating information sharing, learning, and collaboration across ACF-sponsored research partnerships funded by OPRE. The Center will be expected to organize learning communities for at least four different ACF-sponsored research partnerships grant programs. The Center will help to ensure that the research conducted by the sponsored research projects informs CCDF Lead Agencies and the child care and early education policy research field more broadly, and will increase knowledge on child care subsidy policy topics through synthesis and analysis of research and data. This Center will ideally bring together a team that has experience supporting CCDF Lead Agencies research and evaluation capacity building as well as expert level knowledge of the CCDF program and policies, the child care and early education research literature including the effects of early care and education on children’s school readiness and parental employment, an understanding of the needs of low-income families, as well as the policies and practices that support equitable access to child care. The grant recipient will be funded through a cooperative agreement.