Tiny Blue Dot Foundation Opens Fourth Round of Global Research Funding on the Science of Perception Box™

More than $40M awarded to date for groundbreaking interventional studies in neuroscience, mental health, and perception

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tiny Blue Dot Foundation has opened its fourth round of major neuroscience funding, offering multi-year grants of up to $900,000 to advance understanding of how internal beliefs and lived experiences shape perception of reality. Letters of Intent (LOIs) are now being accepted through October 7, 2025.

Since 2023, the Foundation has awarded over $40 million to 34 projects worldwide, supporting research and effective interventions on psychedelics and death anxiety, VR therapy for end-of-life distress, school-based anxiety prevention, mindfulness, anorexia, autonomous play, and more. Funded studies span institutions across five continents, exploring the Perception Box™ framework developed by founder Elizabeth R. Koch, a model for how internal narratives, cognitive schemas, and emotional experiences determine how we see and respond to the world. A complete list of these research projects can be found here.

Grants will be awarded to qualified non-profit academic and research institutions around the world. Researchers are encouraged to propose studies 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 three rounds of funding have catalyzed a wave of cutting-edge studies investigating the relationship between perception, consciousness, and mental health:

• 2023 cohort (11 projects): Explored psychedelics and death anxiety, mindfulness for chronic pain, dream induction for trauma recovery, heated yoga, breathwork, and compassion-based interventions reducing bias between police and Black community members.
  
  
• 2024 cohort (12 projects): Focused on narrative identity in minority youth, VR therapy for end-of-life distress, interoceptive awareness in teens, and emotion regulation using AI and mindfulness-based interventions.
  
  
• 2025 cohort (12 projects): Centered on adolescents, funding research on psilocybin therapy for grief, VR games powered by heart-brain biofeedback, school-based anxiety prevention, body image interventions using visual attention training and embodiment illusions, dialogue-based civics programs promoting emotional resilience and social connection, sauna and well being and others.

Since 2023, the Foundation has received hundreds of proposals from around the world, with all applications undergoing a two-stage, double-blind external review process. Projects funded to date span institutions in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Israel, Taiwan, Austria, the Netherlands, and Spain.

"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 the 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."

2025 RFP Timeline (subject to slight adjustments)

• Sept 2: LOI opens
• Oct 7: LOI closes
• Dec 22: Selected LOIs notified
• March 2, 2026: Full proposals due
• June 2026: 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.

Over the past decade Elizabeth R. Koch has founded and co-founded organizations in the fields of publishing, media, neuroscience, and transformational experiences, all under the banner of Unlikely Collaborators. These organizations include Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, a scientific research non-profit that seeks to understand and measure the operations of Perception Box, and Catapult, an award-winning publishing company that seeks to expand our ability to see one another and honor every life experience. These organizations all share the same goal of bringing awareness of the Perception Box framework to all people.

Tiny Blue Dot Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports scientific research exploring how perception is shaped, constructed, and potentially transformed. Through the lens of the Perception Box™, the Foundation funds empirical studies that aim to reduce suffering, increase empathy, and help individuals develop greater psychological flexibility and resilience.

Led by Chief Scientist Dr. Christof Koch, a pioneering researcher in the neuroscience of consciousness, the Foundation collaborates with academic institutions, clinicians, and global experts to explore tools and interventions that shift perception in measurable, meaningful ways.

To learn more, visit: www.tinybluedotfoundation.org

SOURCE Tiny Blue Dot Foundation