The Spencer Foundation seeks proposals for Vision Grants up to $75,000 by August 12, 2026. The Vision Grant program provides scholars and collaborators with the time, space, resources, and support to plan a large-scale study or program of research: geared toward real-world impact to make education systems more equitable; drawing on research across disciplines and methods; and developed through meaningful and equitable collaboration with practitioners, policymakers, communities, and other partners; and focused on transforming educational systems.

The Spencer Foundation invests in research to improve education, broadly conceived. We know that rigorous research can play a critical role in identifying systemic inequities, evaluating what actually works, and guiding evidence-based changes that make education systems fairer and more inclusive.

• WHEN: August 20, 2026 (all day)
• WHERE: Hybrid Conference
  • In-Person: Arts Building, Room W-120, McGill University, 853 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC
  • Online: Zoom
• TO REGISTER: CLICK HERE
• ANY QUESTIONS, contact Jennifer Proudfoot at jennifer.proudfoot@mcgill.ca
• PRELIMINARY AGENDA AVAILABLE HERE

Worried about low and declining birth rates? Is there really a fertility “crisis”?

Learn from experts from across North America how we can face our demographic future with facts, not fear, and develop policies that respect reproductive autonomy, promote gender equality, and support all types of families.

This hybrid event, sponsored by McGill’s Centre on Population Dynamics and the Vanier Institute of the Family, will bring together leading demographers, family scientists, economists, reproductive health researchers, and policy analysts to examine the implications of low fertility, dispel common myths and misperceptions, and propose pro-alignment policies to help people avoid both unintended and unrealized fertility and foster demographic resilience.

San José, Costa Rica, 24-25 August 2026

• Registration for the workshop (restricted to ALAP participants)
• More information on Escueles ALAP

Instructors and affiliations:

• Diego Alburez-Gutierrez (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research – MPIDR)
• Enrique Acosta (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research – MPIDR & Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona)
• Liliana Calderón (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research – MPIDR)

Short description:

Kinship demography makes it possible to compute, using analytical and microsimulation models, how many living or deceased relatives an individual can expect to have over the life course under a given demographic regime. In recent years, this approach has been extended to quantify bereavement at the population level: how many people lose a family member in a given year? how many have experienced at least one loss over their lifetime? how many people are bereaved by each death? For example, a recent study estimated that 19 million Colombians, close to 40% of the population, have lost at least one relative as a result of the armed conflict in that country.

This workshop offers a practical introduction to these methods, with an emphasis on their computational implementation. The first part of the program covers the foundations of kinship modeling, as well as the use of software packages to generate kinship estimates with vital rates that vary over time and by sex. The second part focuses on estimating bereavement at the population level: it introduces the key measures (annual incidence, cumulative prevalence, bereavement multipliers), the corresponding formulas, and the relevant methodological decisions, including the choice of denominator, the treatment of cause-specific mortality, and independence assumptions. The workshop combines conceptual lectures with practical exercises in R, using real data from the United Nations World Population Prospects.

Objectives:
The general objective of this workshop is to introduce participants to the modeling of kinship demography and its application to the study of bereavement at the population level. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the theoretical foundations of demographic kinship models and their implementation in R packages.
2. Estimate the expected size of kinship networks by kin type, age, sex, and year using vital rates that vary over time.
3. Calculate individual probabilities and population counts of people bereaved by the loss of at least one relative, distinguishing between annual incidence and cumulative prevalence.
4. Construct and interpret bereavement multipliers—the expected number of bereaved persons per death—as a measure of the social impact of mortality.

Requirements for participants (prior knowledge, software, bringing a laptop, etc.):
The workshop is aimed at demographers, epidemiologists, and social scientists with basic experience in R and fundamental demographic concepts (life tables, fertility rates). No prior experience in kinship demography is required. Bring a laptop and install R and RStudio, as well as the rsocsim and DemoKin packages.

Digital tools have expanded the reach of family planning programs in sub-Saharan Africa, but most existing approaches rely on one-way or rule-based messaging that cannot replicate the kind of responsive, personalized conversation that moves women from awareness to action. Recent advances in large language models have changed what is possible. AI-enabled consumer engagement tools can now hold nuanced, multi-turn conversations in local languages, respond to individual questions and concerns, and deliver personalized information at very low marginal cost across both public and private sector channels. This RFP seeks to answer a core question for the family planning field: can AI-enabled direct-to-consumer engagement improve contraceptive uptake, continuation, and informed method choice at scale – and, if so, which approach works best?

Applications for this RFP are due no later than August 25, 11:30 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time.

There will be a dedicated webinar on August 4, 2026, 7:00-8:00am U.S. Pacific Time, to provide an overview of the RFP and answer questions. To attend, please register and submit your questions in advance. A recording will be posted on the challenge page following the session for those unable to join live.