Brain Awareness Week Grants Are Back – Get Up to $1,250 for 2025!
Calls for applications for 2025 Brain Awareness Week are out! Apply by 31st October to get up to $1,250 towards your BAW event that will highlight the importance of neuroscience for our societies.
As you may know already, Brain Awareness Week takes place mid-March annually in just about every corner of the planet. In 2025, it officially falls between March 10th and 16th. If that doesn’t work for you but you’d still like to take part in the global initiative, you can still get the funding as long as your program has to do with neuroscience and carries the official signage of Dana and IBRO.
Head over here to learn more and apply!
An amazing #BrainAwarenessWeek day in the @BHLibraries Jubilee Library. @SussexNeuro, @OGSteele and some amazing volunteers from @SussexNeuroSoc and @Sussex_Psych demoing how our brains send signals to our bodies. pic.twitter.com/KUKNxPbQk1
— Sarah King (@drsarahking) March 16, 2024
What’s New This Year?
First of all, any organization can apply! Unlike in previous years, there are no eligibility restrictions in terms of your organization’s legal form. Previously, the focus used to be on organizations registered as public charities, educational institutions or small businesses.
Secondly, while all neuroscience programs are welcome, they’ll prioritize the multidisciplinary ones that have to do with neuroscience and society. They cite the fields of ethics, law, humanities, medicine, arts, social sciences, policy, education, journalism and public engagement as possible intersections. But those are just examples. To them we add robotics, machine learning and brain-machine interfaces like the ones we made this summer!
As always, applicants who work in underserved communities stand the best chance of getting funded. Also, you can use the money towards buying equipment that you get to keep after Brain Awareness Week! Perfect chance to avail your organization of some BYB gear (or even our complete portable lab bundle) if you haven’t already.
How to Apply?
All you need to do is head over here to register. This year, they simplified the process through SurveyMonkey so that you can do it using your Google account. Then, you’ll have to fill out a form with several details about your organization, its past involvement in Brain Awareness Week if any, as well as your proposal for 2025.
As a registered user, you’ll also gain access to a range of IBRO’s other grants, including funding of travel, parenthood and conference.
@SfNOttawa is at the @SciTechMuseum with fun @BackyardBrains activities for #BrainAwarenessWeek!!!! Today and tomorrow 11am-3pm. ??? pic.twitter.com/XltigvPYpm
— Lauren Butterfield (@l_butterfield6) March 14, 2024
Are There Grants for Europe Too?
Yes! Just like every other year, Dana Foundation is partnering up with Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) to offer up to EUR 1,000 per project towards organizing 2025 Brain Awareness Week. The deadline for European applicants is shorter though, and they need to apply by October 3, 2024.
More details here.
Backyard Brains BAW 2025 Ideas
Bioethics
You might want to try and weigh up the cost to a cockroach that loses a leg against the benefit of getting more kids interested in neuroscience so that some could one day become scientists and maybe find a cure for Alzheimer’s.
- Further reading: Ethical Issues Regarding the Use of Invertebrates in Education
- BYB kit: Neuron SpikerBox
Showing how plants react to different stimuli including pain can also be part of this discussion. We’ve recently had a peer-reviewed study by high-schoolers who put together an open-source library of plant responses and behavior. The experiment is very easy to do, and best of all, anybody can contribute to the online library with their findings!
- Further reading: High School Students Publish a Paper on Plant Physiology in a Notable Journal
- BYB kit: Plant SpikerBox
How to Make Neuroprosthetics Cheaper & Accessible to Everyone
Another societal question is that of neuroprosthetics as a life-changing technology that still has a long way to go to become universally accessible.
Over the years, we’ve seen many brilliant attempts to build custom prosthetical tools using our gear, like this prosthetic finger made by a high-schooler, or the mirror stimulation attempt by an amateur scientist who wanted to treat his spinal cord injury. These and many other projects have done the first step in science: proving that innovation doesn’t only live in big labs, but in any curious soul.
- Further reading: High School Senior Makes an Award-Winning Prosthetic Finger Using Muscle SpikerShield; Amateur Scientist Tries to Hack Human-Human Interface to Treat His Own Spinal Cord Injury
- BYB kits: Human-Human Interface, The Claw
The 1st edition of our MIT Press book also comes with 50+ open-ended experiments. And if you’re a fan of classic human, animal or plant electrophysiology, we’ve got you covered with 5 of our all-time favorites that have already made an amazing track record in scicomm around the world.