The UCLA-CDU Dana Center provides annual seed grants in line with its mission to develop a method of community-partnered neuroscience. This seed grant program is made possible through The Dana Foundation, DGSOM, the UCLA College, Charles R. Drew School of Medicine, and the office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at UCLA.
The Center supports projects for one year with a targeted annual budget of up to $50,000 and potential for a second year renewal. The purpose of these awards is to develop new research projects at the intersection of neuroscience and society, with a special emphasis on projects willing to explore the relationship between community knowledge and participation and neuroscience knowledge.
We encourage not only primary research proposals, but also education proposals, community advocacy proposals, science communication proposals, and humanities proposals.
Our 2025-2026 Seed Grant Application Cycle is Open
We now welcome applications for our 2025-2026 program cycle.
The Seed Grant RFA can be accessed here. For more information or assistance, email our admin team at: danacenter@mednet.ucla.edu
Our 2025-2026 application cycle:
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- Applications will only be accepted via our submission portal. The portal for submission is available here.
- The application deadline is June 30, 2025
- Award notifications will be made on August 15, 2025
- Seed Grant program begins October 1, 2025
Seed Grant Eligibility in Brief
- Funds are available to UCLA and CDU faculty from any discipline working at the intersection of neuroscience and society.
- Funds are also available to community partners that work with UCLA and/or CDU faculty, or whose work supports the Center’s mission.
- Funds are not intended to supplement ongoing supported research, unless the project considerably expands the scope and/or reach of the ongoing activity to align with the Center.
- An eligible individual may only submit one proposal on which they are PI.
- Individuals who identify with a local community interested in venturing into work in neuroscience and medicine are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Proposals which include intentional efforts to partner with community organizations, or demonstrate a need and willingness to do so, are particularly encouraged.
- Projects do not need to have already established community partnerships in order to be eligible but must be explicitly open to doing so.
Our 2024-2025 Seed Grant Awardees
Complex interplay of compounded noise and heat effects on developing neural circuits Project leads: Valerie A. Tornini, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles; Joanne Suarez, MBE, Prospera Institute
Addressing gaps in brain health awareness and access among Black Angelenos: Development of the Black Brain Health Network Project leads: Courtney Thomas Tobin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Kacie Deters, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology; Jennifer Adrissi, M.D., MSCR, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
Assessing the Impact of High ACE score on the neurobiology of maternal child attachment in marginalized women. Project lead: Nithya Ravindran, DO; Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine
Investigating the Cognitive and Academic Consequences of Classroom Acoustics in South LA Project leads: Dr. Jennie Grammer, Associate Professor of Education and Information Studies, UCLA; Dr. Julie Schneider, Associate Project Scientist, UCLA
Feathers & Feelings: Creating Cross-Generational Birding Sanctuaries at UCLA and CDU Communities Project leads: Stephanie White, PhD, Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology, Chair of the UCLA undergraduate Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program; Sung-Jae Lee, MPH, PhD, Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of Research and Evaluation at the Nathanson Family Resilience Center, Division of Population Behavioral Health
Impact of personal care products on neuronal function and health Project leads: Felix E. Schweizer, Professor Neurobiology; David E. Krantz, Professor Psychiatry
Human Centered Design
We use a process of Human Centered Design to identify, contextualize, and prioritize the knowledge and interests of people experiencing the conditions neuroscience can impact. It is a process that asks first, what the most important issues, lived experiences, and existing efforts of community members are, and second, how neuroscience can be in service to those realities. It asks groups of people to sit together and collaborate on activities including rapid brainstorming and identification of issues, iterative ranking and voting, root cause analyses and presentations, and neuroscience research question design.
Over the past year, the Center hosted 3 Human Centered Design sprints, with over 100 participants from UCLA, CDU, and South LA community organizations. Neuroscientists, social science and humanities scholars, medical, nursing, and post-bac students, community organizers, residents, and leaders in education and local policy collaborated to iteratively develop important areas of opportunity for neuroscience impact and social benefit.
This year, we are prioritizing activities which focus on the following themes emerging from our design sprints:
- The impacts of the social and built environments on the brain
- Understanding intergenerational trauma
- The relationship between sound (music, noise, etc.) and the brain
You can read the full results of our Human Centered Design retreats below:
