Megan Peters, associate professor of cognitive sciences, has received a three-year, $234,000 grant from the Templeton World Charity Organization to enhance and accelerate National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation funding opportunities for consciousness researchers.

“This is a complex concept and writing a compelling proposal can be challenging,” Peters says.

The project will involve 20 early career U.S.-based consciousness scientists, program officers and expert panelists. During a two-day workshop, points of overlap between agency priorities and research will be identified. The early-career scientists will then submit project proposals, which will be evaluated for scientific merit, feasibility and potential for future funding; five will be elected for subawards, which may be used to produce pilot data for future NIH or NSF grant proposals.

Funding for this work began in May and ends in April 2023.