New Funding Round Seeks Research Exploring Agency and Independence, Interoception and Emotional Regulation, Identity and Self-Narrative, Values, Meaning, and Belonging

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Tiny Blue Dot Foundation has opened its fifth round of global research funding for the Science of Perception Box, offering multi-year grants of up to $900,000 to advance scientific understanding of how internal beliefs, lived experiences, cognitive schemas, and other factors shape our perception of reality. Letters of Intent (LOIs) are now being accepted through October 5, 2026.

The new RFP follows the Foundation's recent announcement of $9 million in funding for 11 new research projects, bringing the total number of projects supported by Tiny Blue Dot Foundation to 45 across four consecutive funding cycles.

Since launching its open research funding program in 2022, the Foundation has supported studies spanning neuroscience, psychology, mental health, consciousness, and the subjective construction of reality. Funded research has explored psychedelics, mindfulness, virtual reality, adolescent mental health, body perception and interoception, anxiety, chronic pain, dream states, emotion regulation, brain stimulation, and new methods for measuring perception.

Together, these studies investigate the Perception Box™ framework developed by Elizabeth R. Koch, which posits that internal beliefs, cognitive schemas, prior experiences, and other factors shape how individuals interpret themselves, other people, and the world around them. A complete list of funded research projects can be found here.

For its fifth round of funding, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation is inviting applications across four areas of interest:

• Agency and independence: Interventions that investigate and build the experience of autonomy and independence in children, adolescents, and young adults, and that shift caregivers toward autonomy-supportive practices, with measured effects on anxiety, avoidance, confidence, and resilience.
• Interoception and emotional regulation: Interventions and research on a person's ability to perceive and interpret internal bodily signals and how interoceptive awareness supports emotion regulation, social-emotional competence, agency over one's reactivity, and healthier decision-making.
• Identity and self-narrative: Research into how self-narratives are constructed, how they ossify, and how they can be changed.
• Values, meaning, and belonging: Interventions and research on belongingness, purpose, and meaning in life, examining belongingness as distinct from transient social connectedness, including how people can thrive in digital-first communities, and under what conditions.

Grants will be awarded to qualified nonprofit academic and research institutions around the world. Researchers are encouraged to propose studies within these areas that examine, measure, or expand the walls of the Perception Box using rigorous, empirical methods. A full RFP timeline and application guidance can be found at www.tinybluedotfoundation.org.

The Foundation's first four rounds of funding have supported a growing body of research investigating the relationship between perception, consciousness, and mental health:

• 2023 cohort (11 projects): Investigated topics including the effects of psychedelics, breathwork, mindfulness, heated yoga, and interventions aimed at reducing bias through compassionate relationships among police and Black community members.
• 2024 cohort (12 projects): Explored areas including the use of virtual reality to cope with death anxiety, dream induction for trauma recovery, teaching narrative skills to minority adolescents, and enhancing teenagers' awareness of their body signals.
• 2025 cohort (11 projects): Focused heavily on children, adolescents, and young adults and explored innovative approaches to mental health and well-being, including independence-focused therapy for childhood anxiety, school-based depression prevention, virtual reality interventions, psilocybin-assisted grief therapy, meditation and mindfulness, body image and interoception, and dialogue across divides.
• 2026 cohort (11 projects): Explores how the Perception Box is formed, what causes it to contract or expand, and whether experiences and interventions including mindfulness, dreams, psychedelics, play, virtual reality, neurofeedback, and brain stimulation can help people become more aware of what shapes their experience and open them to new ways of seeing themselves and the world. Studies include game-based interventions for adolescent emotion regulation, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for autistic young people with social anxiety, VR-based brain training for pediatric chronic pain, Floatation-REST for adolescent anxiety and body image, psilocybin combined with meditation, and new scientific approaches to measuring perceptual expansion and contraction.

Since 2022, the Foundation has received hundreds of proposals from researchers around the world, with applications undergoing a review process. The fifth RFP continues the Foundation's commitment to building a global, interdisciplinary community of researchers investigating how our individual perceptual worlds are constructed and whether they can be shifted in ways that support greater psychological flexibility and well-being.

"We are especially interested in understanding the forces that shape how people come to see themselves and their place in the world," said Elizabeth R. Koch, Co-Founder of Tiny Blue Dot Foundation. "Our sense of agency, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, how we interpret the signals coming from our bodies, and whether we feel a sense of meaning and belonging are all aspects of the Perception Box. By supporting rigorous research in these areas, we hope to better understand how people might shift their perspective, broaden their mental models, and gain more freedom in how they experience themselves, others, and the world."

"This next round represents another exciting step forward in building a global, interdisciplinary scientific community investigating the boundaries of perception," said Dr. Christof Koch, Chief Scientist of Tiny Blue Dot Foundation. "We remain committed to supporting rigorous neuroscience and psychology-based interventions that help expand people's understanding of their experienced worlds, ease their anxieties, and make them more curious and open to the world."

2026-2027 RFP Timeline

• September 1, 2026: Letters of Intent open
• October 5, 2026, 11:59 p.m. PDT: Letters of Intent close
• December 17, 2026: Selected LOIs are chosen
• February 25, 2027, 11:59 p.m. PST: Full proposals due by invitation only
• Q3 2027: Funding decisions announced

Grants may be awarded to U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations or equivalent institutions internationally. Principal Investigators must hold a PhD, MD, or equivalent and propose original research that advances understanding of the mechanisms, development, or modification of the Perception Box using neuroscience, psychology, behavioral science, or interdisciplinary methods.

About the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation

The Tiny Blue Dot Foundation supports empirical research at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and the subjective construction of reality. As the scientific research arm of the Perception Box framework developed by Elizabeth R. Koch, who co-founded Tiny Blue Dot, to examine how internal beliefs, cognitive schemas, and lived experience shape perception and meaning, the Foundation advances studies that investigate the mechanisms underlying consciousness, emotion, and mental health.

The Foundation is led by Chief Scientist Christof Koch (no relation to Elizabeth R. Koch), a pioneering neuroscientist in the field of consciousness research. Together, the Foundation and its research partners aim to produce rigorous, interdisciplinary insights into how individuals interpret and respond to their internal and external worlds and how these perceptual frameworks can be shifted to support greater psychological flexibility, well-being, and interpersonal connection.

To learn more, visit www.tinybluedotfoundation.org.

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SOURCE Tiny Blue Dot Foundation