How does a young person develop a sense of independence? How does our ability to understand signals from our bodies affect the way we regulate our emotions? Why do some stories we tell about ourselves become so deeply ingrained? And what helps us develop a genuine sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging?
These are some of the questions at the heart of Tiny Blue Dot Foundation’s fifth round of global research funding, now open to researchers around the world.
The Foundation is offering multi-year grants of up to $900,000 for rigorous, empirical research advancing our understanding of the Perception Box™, the framework developed by Elizabeth R. Koch exploring how internal beliefs, cognitive schemas, prior experiences, and other factors shape how we interpret ourselves, other people, and the world around us.
Letters of Intent are being accepted through October 5, 2026.
Building the Science of the Perception Box
Since launching its open research funding program in 2022, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation has supported a growing global community of researchers working across neuroscience, psychology, mental health, consciousness, and the subjective construction of reality.
The Foundation recently announced $9 million in funding for 11 new research projects, bringing the total to 45 projects supported across four consecutive funding cycles.
Those projects have investigated the Perception Box from remarkably different directions, including psychedelics, mindfulness, virtual reality, adolescent mental health, body perception and interoception, anxiety, chronic pain, dream states, emotion regulation, brain stimulation, and new scientific approaches to measuring perception.
Now, we’re looking ahead to what comes next.
What We’re Looking For
For this fifth round, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation is inviting researchers to propose rigorous studies across four areas of interest:
Agency and Independence: How can children, adolescents, and young adults develop greater autonomy and independence? And can helping caregivers adopt more autonomy-supportive practices affect anxiety, avoidance, confidence, and resilience?
Interoception and Emotional Regulation: How does our ability to perceive and interpret signals from inside our bodies affect emotion regulation, social-emotional competence, reactivity, and decision-making?
Identity and Self-Narrative: How do the stories we tell about ourselves get constructed? Why do some become rigid over time? And what might allow those narratives to change?
Values, Meaning, and Belonging: What creates a genuine sense of belonging, purpose, and meaning in life? How is belonging different from temporary feelings of social connection? And what allows people to thrive and experience belonging in increasingly digital-first communities?
Together, these questions get at something fundamental to the Perception Box: How do we come to experience ourselves and the world in the ways that we do, and what might allow those perceptions to become more flexible?
As Elizabeth R. Koch, Co-Founder of Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, explains:
“We are especially interested in understanding the forces that shape how people come to see themselves and their place in the world. 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.”
Four Rounds, 45 Projects and Counting
Each round of Tiny Blue Dot Foundation funding has approached the science of perception from new directions.
The 2023 cohort investigated psychedelics, breathwork, mindfulness, heated yoga, and compassion-based approaches to reducing bias.
The 2024 cohort explored areas including virtual reality for death anxiety, dream induction for trauma recovery, narrative skills among adolescents, and awareness of internal bodily signals.
The 2025 cohort focused heavily on children, adolescents, and young adults, with studies exploring independence-focused therapy for childhood anxiety, school-based depression prevention, psilocybin-assisted grief therapy, body image and interoception, meditation, virtual reality, and dialogue across divides.
And the newly announced 2026 cohort includes research on transformative dreams, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for autistic young people with social anxiety, adolescent emotion regulation, chronic pain, mindfulness, psilocybin and meditation, virtual reality, brain stimulation, and new ways to scientifically measure the expansion and contraction of the Perception Box.
[Explore All 45 Funded Research Projects →]
How to Apply
Tiny Blue Dot Foundation welcomes applications from qualified nonprofit academic and research institutions around the world.
Principal Investigators must hold a PhD, MD, or equivalent, and proposed research should use rigorous empirical methods to advance understanding of the mechanisms, development, or modification of the Perception Box through neuroscience, psychology, behavioral science, or interdisciplinary approaches.
Key dates for the 2026-2027 funding cycle:
September 1, 2026: Letters of Intent open
October 5, 2026, 11:59 p.m. PDT: Letters of Intent close
December 17, 2026: Selected LOIs chosen
February 25, 2027, 11:59 p.m. PST: Invited full proposals due
Q3 2027: Funding decisions announced
As Chief Scientist Christof Koch puts it, this fifth round is another opportunity to build “a global, interdisciplinary scientific community investigating the boundaries of perception.”
We’re looking for researchers who are ready to help us ask difficult questions, test them rigorously, and deepen our understanding of how the worlds we experience are constructed and how they might change.