Arnold Ventures’ Evidence & Evaluation team supports rigorous research to strengthen causal evidence in social policy. By identifying what works — and what doesn’t — we help policymakers and practitioners direct scarce resources toward the strategies most likely to improve outcomes at scale.
Links to our current Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are listed below. In addition, please see our FAQs for common questions about our RFPs and Open Science Guidelines.
The Evidence & Evaluation team is currently accepting applications across multiple policy areas through the Strengthening Evidence and Building Evidence RFPs.
The Strengthening Evidence RFP supports randomized controlled trials across most domestic social policy areas. The Building Evidence RFP supports quasi-experimental studies that estimate the real-world effects of existing policies. Both aim to strengthen causal evidence in social policy by identifying the most effective strategies to improve outcomes at scale.
The Building Evidence RFP invites proposals across several priority areas:
Higher Education: Building credible evidence on what helps students succeed and makes a degree worth it, from retention and completion through job placement, earnings, and loan repayment.
Career Pathways: Identifying programs and policies that widen access to good jobs and economic mobility, with a focus on career and technical education, apprenticeships, and routes to opportunity beyond a traditional college degree.
Health Care: Generating evidence on how to make health care markets more efficient, centered on the effects of administrative costs and burden, and coverage churn.
Medicaid: Finding ways to improve Medicaid’s efficiency and address perverse incentives without reducing coverage, with attention to uncompensated care and health-related social needs.
Online Gambling: Building rigorous evidence on the financial, social, and behavioral impacts of online casino-style gambling (iGaming) as states weigh whether and how to legalize and regulate it.
Infrastructure: Expanding what’s known about building infrastructure faster, better, and at lower cost across housing, transportation, and energy.
Public Finance: Advancing tax and budget policies that promote government fiscal stability and Americans’ economic security, with a focus on program integrity, the effectiveness of retirement security initiatives, and the impacts of policies that support households, expand employment, or improve place-based outcomes.
Letters of interest for both RFPs are due by September 11, 2026.
Open Request for Proposals (RFPs)
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The Building Evidence RFP supports quasi-experimental studies that estimate the real-world effects of existing policies. | The Strengthening Evidence RFP supports randomized controlled trials across most domestic social policy areas. |
Past Requests for Proposals
Cell Phone Policies in K‑12 Schools RFP
Cell Phone Policies in K‑12 Schools RFP
This RFP aims to support rigorous, causal research evaluating how K – 12 cell phone policies affect students’ academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes, addressing a critical evidence gap amid rapidly expanding statewide restrictions.
Sports Betting RFP
This RFP seeks to fund rigorous, causal research that deepens our understanding of the financial, social, and behavioral impacts of legalized sports betting. We are interested in studies that produce actionable insights for policymakers, regulators, and advocates — particularly at the state level— where betting frameworks are rapidly evolving and evidence needs are acute. This RFP will support both randomized controlled trials and rigorous quasi-experimental designs.