Templeton Research Awards

The Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards support innovative research projects at the intersection of neuroscience and Positive Psychology.

Announcing the 2010 Templeton Positive Neuroscience Award Recipients

In 2009, we announced the Awards competition and requested applications for research applying the tools of neuroscience to a range of Positive Psychology topics, including:

• Virtue, strength, and positive emotion: What are the neural bases of the cognitive and affective capacities that enable virtues such as discipline, persistence, honesty, compassion, love, curiosity, social and practical intelligence, courage, creativity, and optimism?
• Exceptional abilities: What is special about the brains of exceptional individuals and what can we learn from them?
• Meaning and positive purpose: How does the brain enable individuals and groups to find meaning and achieve larger goals?
• Decisions, values, and free will: How does the brain enable decisions based on values and how can decision-making be improved? What can neuroscience reveal about the nature of human freedom?
• Religious belief, prayer, and meditation: How do religious and spiritual practices affect neural function and behavior?

"Research has shown that positive emotions and interventions can bolster health, achievement, and resilience, and can buffer against depression and anxiety. While considerable research in neuroscience has focused on disease, dysfunction, and the harmful effects of stress and trauma, very little is known about the neural mechanisms of human flourishing. Creating this network of future leaders in positive neuroscience will change that."

--Martin E.P. Seligman