2024 American National Election Study Competition | 21 601

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 601

The 2024 American National Election Study (ANES) Competition is a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity to support the continued operation and advancement of the American National Election Studies, one of the longest-running and most widely used scientific resources for understanding U.S. elections. ANES is described as a comprehensive longitudinal data collection that has been serving researchers since 1948, producing what is widely regarded as the "gold standard" survey data on voting behavior, public opinion, and political participation in American national elections. The core purpose of the competition is to fund one (or possibly two) organizations to design, field, and manage the ANES program in a way that preserves its long-term comparability while also pushing methodological innovation so the data remain relevant, rigorous, and useful for modern research questions.

At the center of ANES is a major national survey conducted around each U.S. presidential election, with interviewing taking place in the weeks before Election Day and then again immediately afterward. Historically, this flagship study has relied heavily on face-to-face, in-person interviewing with trained interviewers visiting households, using random sampling techniques and relatively large sample sizes. The opportunity emphasizes that this stable sampling framework has major scientific value because it allows researchers to compare attitudes and behaviors across different elections and across long time periods, making it possible to detect subtle but important changes in American democracy that would be difficult to observe in smaller or less consistent studies. In other words, ANES is funded not just to capture a snapshot of a single election, but to maintain a standardized backbone of measurement that supports comparisons across people, places, and time.

While maintaining continuity is a key expectation, the ANES program is also expected to continually incorporate improved methods as the survey research landscape changes. The description highlights that ANES has historically complemented its face-to-face approach with other modes when appropriate, including random digit dialing (RDD) telephone methods during the late 20th century and web-based platforms in the 21st century. It also notes that ANES has introduced and tested a range of enhancements over time, such as panel studies that re-interview the same respondents, targeted oversamples (including oversamples of African Americans and oversamples of Hispanics, with Spanish-language interviewing by bilingual interviewers), experiments to improve recruitment and participation, the collection of respondents' social media data, web-based parallel surveys, and coordination with the General Social Survey (GSS). The grant competition signals that the funded organization(s) must be capable of exploring, developing, evaluating, and applying the best available techniques at the time, and of regularly reviewing and updating questionnaire content as methodologies advance and as national priorities evolve.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, the opportunity is offered by NSF under the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, within the Accountable Institutions and Behavior Program. The award mechanism is a discretionary grant categorized under science and technology and other research and development (CFDA 47.075). NSF anticipates making one or two awards, with a total program budget of no more than $14,000,000 across four years. The award period is described as spanning fiscal years 2022 to 2025, with an expected start date of July 2022. The stated award ceiling is $14,000,000, and the original closing date listed for applications was December 10, 2021. Eligibility is broadly labeled as "Others," with additional eligibility details referenced as being provided in the full solicitation.

Overall, this competition is essentially about stewarding a nationally important public research infrastructure: a high-quality, continuously improving election study that supports global scholarship and evidence-based understanding of how Americans think about politics, how they participate, and how democratic attitudes and behaviors change over time. The organization selected through this competition is expected to uphold ANES's reputation for methodological rigor, protect the long-term comparability that makes the dataset uniquely powerful, and keep the study modern through ongoing testing and adoption of new survey methods, sampling strategies, and measurement improvements.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "2024 American National Election Study Competition" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.075.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 15, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 10, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $14,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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