In recent years, RSF has dramatically increased the number of grants devoted to qualitative research. Between fiscal year 2014 and fiscal year 2022, 66 grants have used qualitative methods as the sole or key component of the projects’ analytical strategy, and an additional 35 projects have used mixed methods. During this period, qualitative projects represented about 11 percent of all grants funded, and 17 percent when mixed-methods projects are included. Seven Pipeline Grants were funded in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Grantees include anthropologists, criminologists, historians, public policy scholars, social work scholars, and sociologists.

Grantees employing qualitative research methods have examined topics such as the effects of immigration policies and enforcement for immigrant integration and wellbeing, policing and the criminal justice system, the intersection of housing and racial inequalities in wealth, low-wage workers, and the effects of poverty reduction on child development.

Click here to read more about these research projects.