MIT researchers win grants to develop and test 14 innovative ideas to improve education

The Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) awarded 14 MIT researchers more than USD 900K in education innovation grants. The grants will enable research across 11 of the institute's departments, covering a wide scope of topics including ecological sustainability, extended reality and physical movement.

"Our Education Innovation Grants support MIT research that can improve learning everywhere," explains J-WEL's faculty director, Anjali Sastry. "We share ideas, disseminate emerging findings, and collaborate with innovators who join us to lead global change in education. Educators in dozens of countries will learn from this year’s inspiring efforts to tackle core challenges in education with innovative new methods and means. Through light-up sneakers, glassblowing, and autonomous vehicles, grantees are enabling learning from curriculum-linked real-world projects, prototyping effective ways to embed evidence-based insights and research into the design of learning experiences, and enabling transitional learners to benefit from high-quality education."

Since 2017, J-WEL has awarded more than USD 5 million to MIT researchers for projects that innovate education across the life cycle. Previous grants have enabled innovation in mechanical engineering, architecture, computer science and AI, physics, aeronautics and astronautics, literature and management.