Introduction
Voss and colleagues (Reference Voss, Stoffregen, Couture, DiGirolamo, Furman, Haidar, Hammer, Lee, Maneotis, McCloy, Olson and Spector2025) advocate for more engaged scholarship to foster inclusive, collaborative research that integrates both practical and scientific perspectives. However, securing grant funding for applied research can be difficult. Workforce development grants present an actionable opportunity to fund this collaborative approach, supporting academic and student involvement in addressing real-world challenges alongside businesses and community partners. Yet, these grants remain underutilized by 4-year colleges and universities (Bohlke et al., Reference Bohlke, Sachau, Agarwal, Glogowski and Dohm2024) and therefore many industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology graduate programs. This commentary explores the benefits of workforce development grants for supporting student-focused engaged scholarship in I-O psychology by outlining the nature of workforce development grants, the application process, and their potential to foster collaboration between I-O graduate programs and local businesses. Faculty are encouraged to utilize these grants to enhance industry partnerships and provide students with impactful applied and research experiences.
Workforce development grants
Workforce development grants uniquely support collaboration among academic institutions, businesses, and workforce agencies to address labor market skill gaps. Funded by federal, state, and local governments, these grants focus on enhancing workforce capabilities and driving economic growth through targeted training programs. Common objectives include addressing labor shortages, increasing workforce diversity, and preparing employees for technological advancements (Bohlke et al., Reference Bohlke, Sachau, Agarwal, Glogowski and Dohm2024). A typical project may involve designing, implementing, and evaluating a training program for employees in organizations undergoing technological change. Therefore, projects often require expertise in needs analysis, instructional design, and program evaluation—skills that align directly with the training and expertise of I-O psychologists.
Programs funded by workforce development grants offer a dual benefit: They enhance employee skills and improve organizational outcomes at little to no cost to businesses while also providing universities with essential funding to develop and evaluate these initiatives.
Additionally, these programs create meaningful learning opportunities for students, blending academic knowledge with practical application. This uniquely “applied” focus aligns closely with the principles of I-O psychology, as the grants aim to deliver training that helps employees stay competitive, adapt to changing demands, and achieve career advancement.
Although workforce development grants may lack the prestige of larger, high-profile funding sources, they remain highly valuable—especially for faculty outside of R1 institutions. Among the 3,000, 4-year educational institutions in the U.S., only 146 college/universities are classified as R1 by the Carnegie Classification of Higher Institutions system. In non-R1 settings, administrators responsible for making hiring and promotion decisions often value any funding that supports faculty research and fosters institutional partnerships. This is especially important in today’s climate of declining enrollments and tight budgets, where many universities are actively seeking to strengthen partnerships with industry and government to drive innovation and financial sustainability (Ankrah & Al-Tabbaa, Reference Ankrah and Al-Tabbaa2015; Frølund et al., Reference Frolund, Murray and Riedel2018).
Furthermore, workforce development grants generally have shorter timelines and less competitive application processes, making them more accessible and efficient to secure.
Federal programs
The U.S. has developed various workforce development programs over the years, beginning with the 1939 Works Progress Administration established during the Great Depression to provide jobs to those out of work. In 1962, the focus shifted from hiring the underemployed and unemployed toward training them with the Manpower Development and Training Act. This was followed by several other federal initiatives aimed at workforce development, including the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act in 1973, the Job Training Partnership Act in 1982, and the Workforce Investment Act in 1998. The most recent of these, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, created a national workforce system that includes state and local workforce investment boards, which are tasked with implementing regional plans and strategies. They can also provide funding for projects at universities (Congressional Research Service, 2022). Refer to www.careeronestop.org to locate workforce development boards in your region that are responsible for managing federal grants.
State programs
In addition to federal initiatives, most states have dedicated funding for workforce development programs. See Bohlke and colleagues (2024) for a list of state agencies responsible for administering these grants. Due to the large number of available grants, a comprehensive description of each state’s programs is not included in this paper. However, it is important to note that many states, such as Minnesota and North Carolina, offer multiple workforce development grants.
Examples of funded programs
When applying for funding, reviewing past funded programs can be valuable. The second author has secured and managed 12 workforce development grant projects for the I-O psychology graduate program at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
These projects offered real-world training experiences, enabling students to apply academic knowledge to drive organizational improvement while enhancing their professional growth. Examples of some of these programs are highlighted in the following table.
Many of the funded programs highlighted in Table 1 included job analysis methods and data collection through surveys and focus groups to assess corporate culture, customer service, and employee engagement. Collecting this publicly funded data not only supports potential publication but sometimes the project requires it. For instance, an example of another funded project involved writing and publishing a book on the psychology of compliance for workers in a heavily regulated production facility (see Sachau, Reference Sachau2021). Even when publishing a book or journal article is not the goal or pursued due to other constraints, funded training programs are still based on research from peer-reviewed journals. Whenever possible, references to these studies are included in the training materials to emphasize the connection between practice and science for employees and their employers.
Example Projects Funded by Workforce Development Grants
Finding and managing workforce development grants
Securing and managing workforce development grants requires a clear understanding of the process and collaboration with key stakeholders. They require managing diverse stakeholders and ensuring inclusive collaboration in both proposals and execution. They also tend to target rapidly changing industries, requiring agile proposals and management to adapt to emerging needs. The following steps outline the essential actions needed to effectively secure and manage workforce development grants.
Step 1. Identify funding opportunities in your state
Research available workforce development grants at the state or federal level. Resources like CareerOneStop.org or your state’s workforce development board can help locate grants that align with your needs (see Bohlke et al., Reference Bohlke, Sachau, Agarwal, Glogowski and Dohm2024). Review the grant guidelines to ensure your organization meets the eligibility criteria, including the types of businesses or training programs supported.
Step 2. Build strategic partnerships with local businesses
Establish relationships with local businesses or organizations that require training and development support. These businesses should have enough employees needing training but not be so large that they turn to major consulting firms. Ideal partners need multiple smaller projects, as funding agencies prefer to support several initiatives rather than one large project. For example, grants from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership program have typically ranged from $30,000 to $60,000 per project, with total funding for multiple projects reaching up to $400,000 for a single employer. Once you identify a business, secure buy-in from multiple levels of leadership, including top executives like directors, VPs, or chiefs, as well as supervisors of employees who will be trained. Building support at these levels is critical for program success. Start with key contacts such as HR directors, training managers, or learning and development heads. And if the business has a union, engage union leaders early on, emphasizing that the grants are designed to help employees advance within the organization. Highlight that training is free for employees and they are paid while participating, ensuring their support. See Rybnicek and Königsgruber (Reference Rybnicek and Königsgruber2019); Vick and Robertson (Reference Vick and Robertson2018); Littleton et al. (Reference Littleton, Townsin and Beilby2023); and Ankrah and Al-Tabbaa (Reference Ankrah and Al-Tabbaa2015) for more information on the factors affecting the success of university–business collaboration.
Step 3. Assess training needs and submit proposal
Collaborate with your institution and business partner to develop a grant proposal that clearly outlines the training needs, proposed solutions, expected outcomes, and budget. Start by performing a thorough assessment to identify specific training needs within the partnering organization(s). Training proposals are more likely to receive funding when supported by a thorough training needs assessment. This is also a great way to involve graduate students early on; consider making the training needs assessment a part of a training course or an experiential learning project. Methods such as interviews, focus groups, or surveys can effectively identify these needs (e.g., Sleezer et al., Reference Sleezer, Russ-Eft and Gupta2014). Graduate students can also support this process by assisting with literature reviews and grant writing.
When writing the proposal, ensure the proposal highlights measurable benefits for both employers and employees, such as the number of employees trained, satisfaction scores, promotion rates, and cost savings—metrics that are important to legislators and business leaders looking for a return on investment. This is also a good time to discuss open science practices with your business partner, such as preregistered reports and data transparency. After adhering to the funding agency’s grant application process, ensuring all submission deadlines and format requirements are met, submit the application. When possible, involve graduate students in reviewing and responding to feedback, enhancing their learning experience—especially for those pursuing academic careers or applied roles in public or nonprofit sectors.
Step 4. Engage graduate students in project implementation and management
Once the grant has been awarded, involving master’s or doctoral students in implementing training programs as planned and maintaining consistent communication with the funding agency can enhance their project management skills—a critical competency highlighted by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology’s 2016 Guidelines for Education and Training (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2016). The Organizational Effectiveness Research Group within the I-O Psychology Graduate Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, serves as a prime example of how students can engage in project management. Faculty members take on consulting roles, and students act as project managers. Each project is typically assigned two to four graduate students, with one student serving as the project lead, acting as the primary liaison between the host organization and the university. This structure has allowed students to explore innovative training topics such as gamification, augmented reality, automation, and microlearning while gaining hands-on experience collaborating with senior leaders, leading focus groups, managing surveys, and creating training content. Through these interactions, they develop key professional skills like stakeholder communication, meeting scheduling, and report writing while using tools such as Qualtrics, SPSS, R, PowerPoint, Articulate, and various editing and time-tracking software.
Step 5. Evaluate outcomes and publish findings
Many projects involve data collection through surveys or focus groups to evaluate the success of the training programs and submit any required reports to the funding agency. Because these projects are publicly funded, the data can often also be used for publication, offering opportunities for academic dissemination.
Supporting engaged scholarship
Workforce development grants require collaboration among universities, the state, and local employers throughout the program’s lifecycle, from identifying workforce needs to evaluating outcomes. Building on the recommendations of Voss et al., for integrating engaged scholarship into the research process, this paper highlights how these grants further incentivize academic–industry collaboration at each phase of the research process. A checklist for securing and managing these grants is provided in Table 2.
Checklist for Securing and Managing Workforce Development Grants Throughout the Research Process
As can be seen in Table 2, the funding model of these grants fosters a strong partnership among the university, the state, and the host organization. Together, they identify training needs, and the university’s grants office submits a proposal that outlines these workforce needs and their expected benefits. Once funded, the state compensates the university for the time faculty and students spend developing training programs and for every hour employees participate in training. This structure ensures that faculty and students remain partners, not employees, of the host organization.
By supporting projects that are both academically relevant and aligned with the strategic goals of organizations, as well as U.S. federal and state governments, workforce development grants help identify issues of joint interest, ensuring that the research has real-world impact. For example, these funding programs often encourage prosocial work and the exploration of technological advancements in the workplace—areas that are currently underexplored and recognized as needing more focus in I-O psychology.
As shown previously in Table 1, several funded projects target underrepresented groups.
These initiatives simultaneously support state legislative efforts to increase labor market participation and mobility for minority citizens while responding to calls for more prosocial work in the field (e.g., Gloss et al., Reference Gloss, Carr, Reichman, Abdul-Nasiru and Oestereich2017; Moran et al., Reference Moran, McChesney, Kuzmich and Munoz2022; Mullins & Olson-Buchanan, Reference Mullins and Olson-Buchanan2023) and for involving graduate students in such projects (e.g., Banerjee et al., Reference Banerjee, Moran and McChesney2023; Oliveira, Reference Oliveira2017). I-O psychologists can leverage these grants to respond to calls for more research focused on underrepresented groups.
Moreover, because the training project funds do not come from the host organizations’ budgets, these organizations are more willing to experiment with innovative training methods, such as augmented reality, online courses, and microlearning modules. This willingness to explore new approaches also helps meet the demand for timely research on workplace technologies (White et al., Reference White, Ravid, Siderits and Behrend2022). For example, some projects highlighted in Table 1 utilized augmented reality to train foundry workers on complex metal grinders, whereas others employed gamified simulations to improve customer satisfaction and profitability in a meat-packing facility. Projects like these offer tech-savvy students the opportunity to apply their skills, and employees benefit from cutting-edge training informed by or contributing to future research.
In conclusion, workforce development grants are a valuable tool for reducing the academic–practitioner gap in I-O psychology, aligning with the principles of engaged scholarship. By tapping into these opportunities, I-O psychologists can contribute to regional economic growth while providing students with real-world learning experiences. Ultimately, workforce development grants serve as a powerful mechanism for advancing academic, organizational, and workforce development goals, benefiting all stakeholders involved.
Competing interests
We have no conflict of interest to disclose.
