As part of various coalitions, AERA seeks to increase federal investment in education research specifically and in the social and behavioral sciences broadly.

The pipelines through which federal research funding in education and the social and behavioral sciences include:

• Department of Education
  - Institute of Education Sciences
  
  
• National Science Foundation
  - Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate
  - Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate
  
  
• National Institutes for Health
  - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)