Good Afternoon,

The Harvard internal call for proposals has been announced for the John Templeton Foundation’s Spiritual Yearning Research Initiative, which aims at addressing the spiritual yearnings, existential concerns, and search for meaning of spiritually curious but nonreligious individuals and communities. This is a limited submission opportunity, and Harvard may put forward one nominee for this program. Interested applicants from Harvard must first submit an internal pre-proposal by July 17, 2022. More information on the award and the internal selection process can be found in the synopsis below:

John Templeton Foundation Spiritual Yearning Research Initiative: The Search For Meaning Among The Nonreligious

Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: July 17, 2022

Sponsor Deadline for an Online Funding Inquiry (if nominated): August 19, 2022

Award Amount: up to $2.2M. Projects should have a start date between August 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024 and an end date after February 2026; project length may not exceed three years.

The Templeton Foundation’s aim in this funding competition is to arrive at a better understanding of spiritual yearning and flourishing among the spiritually curious but nonreligious, by supporting research by scholars within philosophy, theology, religious studies, and the psychological sciences. This competition focuses on the two broad themes of spiritual yearning and meaning-making for the nonreligious, with each of these themes covering a number of possible empirical and conceptual research questions. The Initiative invites proposals that make use of a variety of research methods, including but not limited to qualitative research, theory-construction, conceptual clarification, surveys, experimental research, and normative argument. The Foundation expects to fund between six and ten projects, and anticipates funding at least one project consisting primarily or exclusively of new empirical research (i.e., data collection, data analysis, and/or experimental work), but the majority of the successful proposals will include conceptual or cross-disciplinary dimensions.

The Foundation will hold a virtual information session on July 20, 2022. If you wish to participate, please email syri@templeton.org.

The Foundation will accept one Online Funding Inquiry from Harvard University. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating an internal application and review process for interested applicants. Internal applications must be submitted via the link above by July 17, 2022.

Questions about this announcement may be directed to Erin Hale at erin_hale@fas.harvard.edu or Susan Gomes at sgomes@fas.harvard.edu.