Opportunity Information: Apply for SFOP0010162
The FY 2024 Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students (IDEAS) Program is a U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) funding opportunity that supports U.S. foreign policy and people-to-people diplomacy by strengthening the ability of U.S. colleges and universities to expand and broaden study abroad. Run through the U.S. Study Abroad Branch within ECA, the program is built around the idea that more U.S. students studying overseas, and a more diverse mix of institutions, destinations, and participants, contributes to mutual understanding between the United States and other countries. Rather than directly funding individual students, the program primarily invests in institutional capacity so that more campuses can launch, improve, or scale education abroad opportunities over time.
A central focus of IDEAS is diversification, defined broadly and not limited to any single strategy. The opportunity emphasizes bringing more types of U.S. institutions into study abroad, especially those historically underrepresented in outbound mobility such as community colleges, Minority Serving Institutions, and institutions located in states that traditionally send fewer students abroad. It also prioritizes increasing participation among student groups that are underrepresented in study abroad, including first-generation students, racial and ethnic minority students, students with disabilities, and students in academic disciplines that have historically had lower study abroad participation. In addition, the program encourages expansion to new and safe overseas destinations, particularly places that are less common for U.S. study abroad, aligning mobility growth with broader U.S. engagement objectives.
This grant is structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning the awardee is expected to work in close consultation with ECA throughout implementation. ECA anticipates making one award, with an award ceiling of $2,100,000. The selected recipient will function as the national program administrator responsible for two major components: administering a small grants program to U.S. higher education institutions and delivering broader capacity-building support to the field. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status, among others listed in the full notice. The funding opportunity number is SFOP0010162 under CFDA 19.009, and the original application closing date was March 11, 2024.
The first required component is the administration of small grants designed to help campuses build study abroad capacity in ways that increase and diversify participation. The award recipient must run at least one open, merit-based competition that results in approximately 32 subawards to accredited U.S. colleges and universities. These subawards are intended to help institutions create, expand, and/or diversify their study abroad programs in support of U.S. foreign policy goals. The administrator is expected to look for operational efficiencies so that as much funding as possible reaches institutions through subawards, potentially increasing the number of campuses that can be supported. The recipient must establish and apply selection criteria that clearly align with the IDEAS goals and with the small-grants criteria described in the notice of funding opportunity.
Beyond running the competition, the program administrator has ongoing responsibilities to ensure subawards succeed. This includes providing programmatic support and guidance to applicants and funded institutions, monitoring both fiscal compliance and program progress, and tracking results and overall impact. The recipient must submit semi-annual results reports to ECA and is required to flag any barriers to successful implementation as soon as they arise, working with ECA to address programmatic or financial challenges. The cooperative agreement also requires evaluation of activities, reinforcing that the administrator is accountable not just for distributing funds, but for demonstrating outcomes and lessons learned across the portfolio.
The second required component is field-wide capacity building for the broader U.S. higher education community, extending benefits beyond the campuses that receive subawards. The recipient must design and implement initiatives that help education abroad professionals, faculty, and administrators strengthen their ability to expand and diversify U.S. student mobility overseas. The notice gives flexibility in format, allowing in-person and/or virtual workshops, seminars, trainings, and other creative mechanisms that support practical knowledge sharing and skill-building. Applicants are expected to propose at least six total capacity-building activities, and these can vary in length and structure depending on the intended audience and goals.
For any in-person capacity-building activities, proposals should include funding that enables broad and diverse participation by U.S. higher education representatives, including individuals or institutions that would need financial support to attend. This requirement reinforces the program’s equity and access goals by trying to ensure that professional development is not limited to well-resourced campuses. At the same time, the notice places a budget boundary on this element: proposals for the capacity-building initiatives portion should not exceed $150,000 in total, signaling that the bulk of resources are expected to support the small-grants component while still maintaining a meaningful national training and knowledge-sharing function.
Overall, the FY 2024 IDEAS Program is essentially a national-level effort to grow the pipeline of U.S. study abroad by helping institutions develop new programs, reach students who have been left out of traditional study abroad models, and broaden the geographic footprint of U.S. student mobility. The Department of State is seeking a single capable organization to serve as both a grants administrator and a field builder: someone that can run a fair and effective subaward competition, provide hands-on technical support and oversight, and deliver scalable training and convenings that raise the capacity of the entire education abroad community.Apply for SFOP0010162
- The Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2024 Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students (IDEAS) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.009.
- This funding opportunity was created on 2023-12-12.
- Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-03-11. (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 $2,100,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others.
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