"The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF), in collaboration with the Criminal Justice program at Arnold Ventures (AV) is pleased to announce its first annual grants competition for early-career scholars. Our goal is to cultivate a pipeline of researchers conducting causal research on the criminal justice system. Criminal justice policies and practices include the work of police, courts, jails, prisons, probation and parole, and immigration detention.

"Proposals must include causal research designs that can reliably isolate the treatment effects of a policy, practice, or intervention. Examples include difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, and randomized controlled trials. Mixed methods projects will be considered if a causal research design is central to the proposal.

"Although non-causal research projects should not be submitted to this joint AV-RSF program competition, the Russell Sage Foundation has an ongoing research grants program that will consider non-causal research projects on the topics listed in this RFP as long as they have strong research designs.

"Applicants must be tenure-track assistant professors at a college or university in the U.S. at the start of the grant period. We encourage applicants who have not previously received RSF support. The program prioritizes disciplinary diversity and welcomes applications from scholars who are underrepresented in the social sciences, and/or employed at under-resourced universities. Proposals for one-year projects are due on April 1, 2026, for funding starting October 1, 2026.  The maximum grant is $100,000 (including 15% indirect costs). Funds can be used for up to $15k of PI salary or course buyouts (for each eligible PI/Co-PI), research assistance, research travel, data access, data collection, subject payments, conference travel, and other research expenses."

Read the complete RFP online.