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Grants

About Team Grants

Through the generosity of our sponsors, our Team Grant Program matches schools and organizations that are interested in adopting the world's largest and fastest growing academic robotics competitions with the program resources necessary to get started. This unique program allows the REC Foundation to provide the resources needed to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Grant support is based upon sponsor requirements. The REC Foundation does its best to support all requests, but can not guarantee each applicant will receive support.

Learn More About Grants

Whether you are developing a robotics program or starting a competition team, grants are available for you!

Grants FAQ

This FAQ section is designed to guide you through the grant process.

The REC Foundation receives grant funding from many sources. Government grants, private donations, and corporate sponsorships are the most common. 

Grants are distributed to teams according to guidelines set by the funders, such as geographic location, historically underrepresented demographics, and/or age groups. Once a grant request is received, the REC Foundation grants team begins an initial review of your application to determine if your school/organization meets a funder’s criteria.

Teams must be set up or renewed in RobotEvents and placed in your cart. 

For any additional questions or assistance, please contact our grant support team by emailing grants@recf.org.

If a match exists, the grants team will contact the applicant via telephone or email to clarify any questions. This process ensures grant applicants are still interested and that the applicable terms and conditions fulfills the needs of the school or organization. 

The grant applicant is requested to verify their email address before proceeding to the next step of a background check. No credit checks are initiated in this background check.

Please reach out to our grant support team by emailing grants@recf.org for any questions. 

Follow these steps:

  1. Accept terms and conditions. The email asks you to accept the terms and conditions associated with the grant. Carefully review these terms before accepting. Remember, the terms and conditions are a legal agreement to complete the grant requirements in return for the award received.
  2. Discount Application: Once your teams are registered, you need to apply the discount(s) to your cart located on the dashboard in RobotEvents. This discount corresponds to the grant funds awarded.

If you already created your invoice, please click on the hyperlinked invoice number that includes the team registrations and click “Start Over” at the bottom of the page.

Note: You will receive a warning that you will delete the current invoice number and press delete. This adds the teams back to the cart.

If you have equipment associated with the grant, please go to your dashboard and click “add to cart” for each equipment item you were granted.

Once all the discounts are added to your cart, you may begin the checkout process.  

*Caution* – Please be sure to check that you have a zero balance in your cart. If additional items need to be purchased outside of your granted items, please create a separate invoice/order.

We do not offer refunds on registrations or give funding for teams that are already paid or have a PO in a processing status. Reach out to our grant support management team prior to paying for team registrations to see what grants may have available.

2025-2026 Signature Event Updates

  1. An Event Partner wanting to apply to host a Signature Event must have hosted events for at least 2 seasons prior to applying. 
  2. Signature Events must use the officially branded award banners for the Excellence Award and Tournament/Teamwork Champions Award.
  3. When hanging field skirts the VEX Robotics logo/brand name can not be covered up on the competition fields.
  4. VEX V5 Robotics Competition Signature Events may have regional capacity and max per organization restrictions lifted 8 weeks before the event if the event is not full (similar to the process already in place for VEX IQ Robotics Competition Signature Events).
  5. Minimum pit size reduced to 8’x 8’ instead of 10’x10’.
  6. Beginning in the 2025-2026 season, the REC Foundation will collect $10 instead of $5 per team registration on all Signature Events. This is to help offset travel costs for REC Foundation staff to support these larger events.

2025-2026 Signature Event Application Reminders

  1. Existing Signature Events only need to complete the Final Application (due by March 31, 2025)
  2. New Signature Event concepts will need to complete the Initial Proposal by January 31, 2025 and if approved, complete the Final Application by March 31, 2025.
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