Request for Proposals - Tiny Blue Dot Foundation
Forecasted
Request for Proposals - Tiny Blue Dot Foundation supports researchers studying how mental models shape conscious experience and how interventions can strengthen self-awareness, agency, and well-being.
Funder: Tiny Blue Dot Foundation
Due Dates (Anticipated): February 2027 (Full proposal, invite only) | October 2027 (LOI, projected)
Funding Amounts: Up to US$900,000 per project over up to three consecutive years, including overhead
Summary: Supports rigorous research into how mental models shape conscious experience and how interventions can strengthen self-awareness, agency, and well-being.
Key Information: Grants require an eligible research institution and a PI with an MD, PhD, or equivalent degree.
Description
Tiny Blue Dot Foundation funds rigorous, empirical, statistically valid research on the Perception Box: the mental models that filter how people perceive themselves, others, and the world. The program seeks to explain how these models form, persist, and change through neural, psychological, physiological, and social mechanisms—and how those mechanisms give rise to subjective, conscious experience.
The program welcomes foundational and applied research, including tools and interventions grounded in testable models. It prioritizes understanding why and how perceptual shifts occur, rather than simply demonstrating symptom improvement. Its four areas of interest are agency and independence; interoception and emotional regulation; identity and self-narrative; and values, meaning, and belonging. Research should offer broadly relevant insights across the lifespan, with particular interest in children ages 5–8.
