The Institutional Resilience and Expanded Postsecondary Opportunity (IREPO) program is designed to help intuitions of higher education emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic more resilient and expand educational opportunities for students. The grants can be utilized in a variety of ways, including resuming operations, supporting students, reducing disease transmission, and developing more agile instructional delivery models for students who cannot or choose not to attend classes in person. This grant program also recognizes the benefits to high school students of starting their college career early – while still in high school – and gives priority to applicants that plan to expand those opportunities to students who live or attend high school in an Opportunity Zone or rural community.
Priority for grant awards will be given to colleges and universities with the greatest unmet needs related to COVID-19. In addition, proposals will receive additional consideration if they:
Provide Dual Enrollment Opportunities to Students Who Live or Attend School in a Rural Community or Opportunity Zone:
Are led by, or include as partners, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges, minority serving institutions (MSIs), and/or developing institutions that are eligible to participate in Title III or Title V programs; and/or
Are committed to developing more resilient instructional delivery models, such as distance learning, that make learning possible even when students cannot be physically present on campus for any reason.
A link to the Federal Register Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) is available here. The NIA will publish on August 21, 2020, the deadline of the notice of intent to apply is September 10, 2020, and the application deadline date is October 20, 2020.
All applications for the IREPO program must be submitted electronically using Grants.gov. This opportunity will be posted on Grants.gov upon publication of the NIA in the Federal Register. The Grants.gov opportunity number is ED-GRANTS-082120-001.
For questions regarding the competition, please contact Karen Epps or 202-453-6337.