The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) will solicit applications for a cooperative agreement to support a Tribal Research Center on Early Childhood Development and Systems (TRECS) that will provide leadership and collaboration to promote

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excellence in community-based participatory research and evaluation of ACF early childhood initiatives that serve tribal communities.

Settings to be considered include home visiting programs, early care and education center-based programs, home-based and family child care providers, and Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

The TRECS is expected to:
(1) conduct research to identify needs and/or develop effective practices and integrated systems for ACF early childhood initiatives in tribal communities; (2) identify, validate, and/or develop measures of culturally meaningful inputs, implementation processes, and proximal and distal outcomes of those programs; (3) establish peer-learning communities for tribal research on areas of shared priority; (4) provide training and professional development to facilitate interest and competencies in research relevant to early childhood initiatives in tribal communities; and (5) provide forums to increase cultural competence and sensitivity to tribal voices in research and evaluation.

The expected length of the cooperative agreement is 60 month, with five 12-month budget periods.

The proposed budgets for each budget period will not be greater than $650,000 dollars.