Call for Applications | IPA’s Partnerships for Tech in Education (P4T-Ed) - Round 4

Call for Applications | IPA’s Partnerships for Tech in Education (P4T-Ed) - Round 4

Subsidized advisory services from IPA’s Right-Fit Evidence Unit

About Partnerships for Tech in Education (P4T-Ed)

The Partnerships for Tech in Education (P4T-Ed) initiative, established by Innovations for Poverty Action and the Jacobs Foundation, supports education technology (EdTech) organizations to strengthen their evidence generation and use practices. Through this work, P4T-Ed helps organizations improve their programs while generating insights that inform funders, policymakers, and the broader EdTech ecosystem.

After the strong response to our previous rounds, we are pleased to launch a fourth call for Research & Testing (R&T) partnerships to support organizations who are using digital solutions to improve learning and education outcomes. Please see the Overview of Call for Applications document for full details.

Selected EdTechs receive in-kind technical advisory services from IPA, provided at no cost to them. Selected EdTechs are encouraged to contribute their own funding to unlock a larger in-kind advisory engagement. Learn more about this under the Financial Structure section below.

We expect to select around 4-8 organizations through this round.

Advisory services available under this opportunity

Under P4T-Ed, IPA partners with EdTech organizations to strengthen how they generate and use data and evidence in refining their products and programs. Through these R&T partnerships, selected EdTechs receive hands-on research and testing advisory support to improve program design, decision-making, and learning processes.

While P4T-Ed does not fund the implementation of impact evaluations, advisory support can include:

  • Developing monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) plans and learning agendas to support program improvement
  • Conducting user research and testing to inform product design
  • Strengthening rapid testing capabilities, including A/B testing
  • Designing, testing, and validating data collection tools and data systems to support reliable measurement
  • Providing data science support to strengthen data engineering, analytics, machine learning, and AI applications
  • Support preparing for or scoping rigorous evaluations
  • Other forms of support on implementation research and program design

If your organization is selected, we will collaboratively define the scope of advisory support, ensuring alignment with your organization’s needs and budget.

Call for Applications

P4T-Ed provides in-kind advisory services from IPA.

  • Each selected organization automatically receives in-kind advisory services valued at at least US$30,000, delivered by IPA’s Right-Fit Evidence Unit, provided at no cost to them and fully covered by the P4T-Ed initiative. This level of support corresponds to approximately 30–40 RFE staff working days, delivered over a 6–8 month engagement, depending on the scope of work and staffing structure.
  • Organizations are encouraged to contribute additional funds to expand the scope of the advisory support to better match their needs. This additional contribution would be matched by P4T-Ed. For example, an organization contributing US$20,000 would unlock in-kind services valued at US$40,000 from P4T-Ed, resulting in a total advisory scope valued at US$70,000 (US$30,000 baseline + US$20,000 contribution + US$20,000 match).
  • Applicants that commit additional resources to the partnership will be prioritized during the scoping process.
  • Matched funds may be capped depending on overall demand.

P4T-Ed funds (baseline + matched funds) are used exclusively to cover the cost of IPA’s advisory services and are not disbursed to participating organizations. Any additional funds contributed by participating organizations must also be directed to cover the cost of advisory services and paid directly to IPA. Participating organizations are responsible for covering their own operational costs, such as staffing, data collection, or data infrastructure.

Eligibility and selection criteria


To be eligible, applicant organizations must:

  1. Provide EdTech services (including any type of education).
  2. Operate their product in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Eligible applications will be assessed based on the following criteria (expanded on below):

Phase 1
Potential for influenceCurrent reach and growth potential
Impact potential and its supporting evidence
Potential to benefit from P4T-Ed’s support

 

Phase 2
Alignment with P4T-Ed learning agendaAdapting evidence-based EdTech approaches to context
Aligning pedagogy, product, and measurement
Building data systems that enable learning and iteration
Designing a learning and research roadmap for impact and scale
Designing and learning from AI-enabled features in EdTech


Application instructions and next steps

Interested organizations can submit their expressions of interest using this online form. The application process comprises 13 short questions and should take no more than one hour. 

While the deadline for submissions is February 27, 2026, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage organizations to apply early to maximize their chances of being considered.

For any questions about P4T-Ed or the application process, please contact p4t@poverty-action.org.