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2025 Tools Competition

Enhancing Post-Secondary
Learning Track

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Are you Eligible?

Abstracts due October 25th.

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2025 Tools Competition

Enhancing Post-Secondary
Learning Track

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Learn About the Track

Track Description

Tools that expand access to quality post-secondary learning and broaden connections to career success. This track addresses barriers to social and career mobility, particularly for underserved learners, by increasing the effectiveness and relevance of higher education, supporting learners in bridging their learning and career goals, expanding innovative technology-enabled learning models, and strengthening the workforce.

Competitors may propose solutions that, for example:

  • Increase the quality and relevancy of content and instruction
  • Broaden career pathways for improved mobility
  • Enhance the impact of student advising and supports
  • Develop a competitive and adaptive workforce
  • Improve institutional/administrative systems

Competitive proposals will demonstrate a commitment to learning engineering. Tools should facilitate continuous data collection in order to drive timely and effective interventions, and support research insights on factors affecting outcomes for diverse learner populations and learning conditions.

Target User/Audience

Tools should target learners, educators, or administrators at the post-secondary level as the primary user group. This may include higher education or workforce development.

Who should submit?

Competitors in the United States are eligible to submit. We welcome proposals from teams or individuals from all backgrounds, including edtech companies, researchers/universities, educators, or students (undergraduate or graduate).

Competitive Priorities

Based on the most pressing needs in learning and learning technologies, a subset of prizes will be reserved for for proposals that:

Examples

While the Tools Competition has different tracks and priorities from year to year, the past winning tools below are examples of what could be competitive.

The AI Guide Growth Prize
The AI Guide

Growth Prize

Career CoachTransform Prize
Career Coach

Transform Prize

Experience Translator Growth Prize
Experience Translator

Growth Prize

Judges

Tools Competition judges play a critical role in selecting Tools Competition Winners and bring expertise spanning philanthropy, research, industry, and education. Judges will hear virtual pitches from finalists in Phase III of the competition.

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Ben Castleman

Associate Professor, Economics of Education
University of Virginia
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David Croom

Vice President and Program Officer, Jobs & Skills, Global Philanthropy
JP Morgan Chase & Co.
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Claire Fisher

Senior Director of AI Strategies
Foundation for California Community Colleges
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Gabriella Gomez

Executive Vice President, Policy, Advocacy & Communications
Strada Education Foundation
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Cecilia Marshall

Director, External Partnerships
Partnership for Education Advancement
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Nicholas Pelzer

Senior Director, Portfolio
Blue Meridian Partners
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Emma Pengelly

VP, Philanthropy
Ingeborg Initiatives
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Rahim Rajan

Board Member
AQL Labs
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Jennie Sanders

Vice President, Faculty Experience & Academic Services
Western Governors University
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Philipp Schmidt

VP Technology Innovation
Axim Collaborative
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Sarah Schwettmann

Research Scientist
MIT CSAIL
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Alex Swartsel

Managing Director, Insights
JFF Labs
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Piyush Tantia

Chief Innovation Officer
ideas42
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Matt Zieger

Senior Program Officer
GitLab Foundation

Compete in this Track

Select your prize level

When submitting a proposal, competitors must select the relevant prize level based on the size and scale of their tool. Proposals at all prize levels should detail how the proposed tool will solve a defined problem, rather than focus on past achievements.

catalyst

Catalyst Level Prizes: $50,000

These prizes are designed for early-stage competitors.

  • Tool requirement: The proposal must detail how funding will be used to create or develop the tool.
  • User requirement: There is no minimum number of users required at this level. Competitors may submit with a great idea or early stage tool.
  • Learning Engineering requirement: Team must describe the tool's potential to contribute to learning science research and demonstrate an intention to support research at scale.
growth

Growth Level Prizes: $150,000

These prizes are designed for competitors with a tool with some users and scale.

  • Tool requirement : Proposals must detail how the funding will be used to add a new feature or element to the existing tool or to enhance and improve effectiveness.
  • User requirement : The tool should have active users at the time of submission. Most tools competitive for this phase have already gone to market.

  • Learning Engineering requirement : Teams must include a plan to support learning science research in their Phase II proposal. Learn More.
transform

Transform Level Prizes : $300,000

These prizes are designed for advanced competitors with an established tool.

  • Tool requirement : Proposals must detail how the funding will be used to add a new feature or element to the existing tool or to enhance and improve effectiveness.
  • User requirement : The tool should have at least 10,000 users at the time of submission.

  • Learning Engineering requirement : Team must include a plan to support learning science research in their Phase II proposal. Learn More.
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Proposals will be evaluated for the following criteria

 

1

Novelty of the tool
and technology

 

2

Potential impact and likelihood to improve learning

 

3

Attention to equity to support learning of historically marginalized populations

 

4

Demand from learners
and educators

 

5

Ability to support learning engineering

 

6

Ability to scale to additional users and/or domains

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What is a Tool?

The Tools Competition funds edtech tools and technologies that support learning outcomes and can contribute to learning science research.

Eligible tools have the potential to generate novel learning data that researchers can study to better understand learning at scale. This may include an app, software, algorithm, dataset, or other digital technology that facilitates or supports continuous data collection and has the potential to scale at minimal cost.

Please note that this definition is not exhaustive. As technology continues to develop and innovations are created globally, other tool concepts may also be competitive.

Not sure your tool is eligible? Explore winning tools from previous years.

Timeline

  • November 10 2023

    Deadline for Phase I
    Abstracts
    Competitors submit a 750-word abstract describing the concept for their tool and responding to the evaluation criteria.
  • December 8 2023

    Select competitors invited
    to Phase II
  • February 2 2024

    Deadline for Phase II
    Proposals
    Competitors develop a 3,000-word proposal and budget detailing their tool and its technology and responding in detail to the evaluation criteria. Rubrics will be posted when Phase II opens.
  • April 2024

    Finalists invited to Phase III
    pitches
  • April-May 2024

    Phase III Pitches (virtual)
    Finalists pitch before a panel of expert judges and have the opportunity for support and feedback in crafting their pitch.
  • June 2024

    Winners Announced
    Winners are announced and receive the first installment of their award. Winners receive coaching, the opportunity to connect with leaders in the field, and the ability to present to researchers or to refine their tool.
  • Year Following the
    Competition

    Winner Impact Study
    All winners will work with Georgia State University during the year following the competition to define impact measures for their tool and set up processes for ongoing data collection and evaluation.
  • December 2024

    Product Review Day
    Winners present on their progress to date and receive feedback from other winners and leaders in the field. Progress is considered against winner’s proposal and receive the second installment of their award after Product Review Day.

Timeline

September 12, 2024
Competition Launch
October 25, 2024
Deadline for Phase I Abstracts

Competitors submit an abstract describing the concept for their tool and responding to the evaluation criteria.

November 22, 2024
Select competitors invited to Phase II
January 16, 2025
Deadline for Phase II Proposals

Competitors develop a proposal and budget detailing their tool and its technology and responding in detail to the evaluation criteria. Rubrics will be posted when Phase II opens.

March 2025
Finalists invited to Phase III pitches
March-April 2025
Phase III Pitches (virtual)

Finalists pitch before a panel of expert judges.

May 2025
Winners Notified
Early Summer 2025
Public Announcement

Winners are announced and receive the first installment of their prize. 

Year Following the Competition - Winner Impact Study

Winners track impact metrics in the year following their prize and receive guidance to set up internal evaluation processes.

Fall 2025
Product Review Day

Winners present on their progress to date and receive feedback from other winners and leaders in the field. 

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Explore a Different Opportunity

Accelerating K-12 Learning Track

Tools that assess and accelerate K-12 learning outcomes and support K-12 teachers to enhance their instructional practice in order to prepare students for college and careers.
Learn More

Dataset Prize

For teams that will prepare and release datasets that can make innovation and research related to education less expensive and more inclusive.

Learn More
The 2025 Tools Competition is open for submissions! Submit by Oct 25.