Funder: John Templeton Foundation
Due Dates (Anticipated): December 2026 (Full Proposal) | July 2027 (Online Funding Inquiry, projected)
Funding Amounts: Three-year projects: Intelligence up to $2.5 million; Meaning Making under $260,000 or $700,000–$1.5 million; Imagined Futures prioritizes up to $260,000
Summary: Supports research on intelligence, meaning making, and imagined futures to understand human flourishing and how societies prepare for change.
Key Information: Research must be the primary activity, and inquiries must fit one of the three specified research areas.
Description
The John Templeton Foundation’s Religion, Science, & Society funding area explores fundamental questions about human existence, flourishing, meaning, and how societies envision the future. Its 2026 guidance invites three-year projects in Intelligence, Meaning Making, and Imagined Futures, prioritizing interdisciplinary teams. Public engagement may be included, but research must remain the primary activity.
Intelligence connects theological, philosophical, and social scientific approaches with historical and contemporary understandings of intelligence, including artificial, diverse, and collective forms. Meaning Making examines concrete practices, experiences, and transitions through which people sustain or renew meaning amid rapid social change. Imagined Futures supports empirical and interpretive inquiry into how religious, philosophical, and narrative traditions shape foresight, collective imagination, and preparation for change.
