Overview and Purpose:
The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the Society for Research in Music Education (SRME) invite proposals for research that examine important issues consistent with the vision provided by the 2022 NAfME Strategic Plan and A Blueprintfor Strengthening the Music Teacher Profession, as prioritized by NAfME leadership. For this grant cycle, these research priority areas include: (a) practices and/or policies impacting equity in and access to music education, PK—12 and (b) strategies to support a diverse music teacher education workforce. Two proposals will be funded up to $10,000 each.
Eligibility:
Any member or member(s) of NAfME’s Society for Research in Music Education is eligible to submit a proposal. All named investigators on the project must be NAfME members at the time of submission unless they come from a field outside of music education. A NAfME member must be the principal investigator.
Budget:
Grant recipients will be awarded up to $10,000 to be used solely in support of the project. Funding can be used for direct research costs as well as dissemination of the results at the NAfME Biennial Conference. Costs to disseminate the results of the project at the NAfME Biennial Conference can include transportation and lodging. Direct research costs can include hiring research support personnel (e.g., graduate student assistant) if that support is directly related to the research project. Indirect costs will not be funded. Recipients may not use grant funds to cover overhead costs or to supplement or replace their salary and/or benefits. The prosed budget must be itemized and include the following in a table: (a) item, (b) amount, and (c) clear justification for each item.
Submission Procedure:
All proposals must be submitted electronically with the subject: 2026 SRME NAfME RESEARCH GRANT. Attach the (1) Cover Page, (2) Proposal, (3) Budget and (4) CV as one document—Word (.doc or docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf). Other formats will not be accepted. Proposals must be submitted via email to John Donaldson (johnd@nafme.org) no later than Monday, February 24, 2025, at 11:59 PM ET Submissions will not be accepted after the deadline.
Proposal Format:
- Cover page
- Proposal Title
- Name and affiliation of principal and co-investigator(s)
- NAfME membership number(s) for named investigator(s)
- Abstract (150 words)
- Proposal (not to exceed four single-spaced pages)
- Purpose, rationale, and alignment with priority areas, supported by extant research literature
- Research design and procedures
- Description of data analysis
- Plan for evaluation and dissemination
- Potential impact and contribution to the field
- Timeline
- Itemized Budget (not to exceed one page)
- Principal and co-investigators’ abbreviated Curriculum Vitae (not to exceed three pages for each investigator)
Decision Process:
The SRME Executive Committee will consider all complete proposals, evaluating them for importance, need, quality of research design, procedures and planned analysis, potential contributions to NAfME priority areas, relevance to PK–12 music education and music teacher education, and likelihood of completion. The SRME Executive Committee will rank the proposals and make a recommendation to the NAfME National Executive Board (NEB) for formal approval. Applicants will be notified of the final decision via email by April 14, 2025.
Post Award Requirements:
Presentation. Grant recipients will be provided a slot on the 2026 NAfME Biennial Music Research and Teacher Education Conference program. At least one of the investigators will be expected to present a progress report about the research at the conference. Funding for travel to this conference will be provided only if it is included in the grant budget (see section on Budget above for details).
Submission of a final report. A final report, 150-word abstract, and 750-word executive summary must be submitted to the SRME Executive Committee Chair no later than March 30, 2027. NAfME reserves the right to publish a summary of the results in NAfME journals, press releases, and newsletters, as well as on the NAfME website.
Publication. Grant recipients are expected to submit a manuscript version of the report for consideration in one of the NAfME sponsored peer-reviewed research journals (Journal of Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education). Please note that receiving the grant does not guarantee publication in any of these journals.
Acknowledgement: An acknowledgement that the project was fully or partially funded by a NAfME-SRME Research Grant must be made in any presentation or publication of the work.
