Research!America Congratulates Recipients of the 2025-2026 Civic Science Award and Microgrant Programs
ARLINGTON, Va. (March 23, 2026) – Research!America is proud to congratulate the recipients of its 2025-2026 Civic Engagement Microgrants and Public Engagement Content Awards. Both programs, part of the organization's commitment to civic science, received a record number of applications, demonstrating an increasing commitment by early-career scientists to become more visible and active in their communities.
"With only 25% of Americans able to name a living scientist, it is incumbent upon the science community to become much more visible in their communities," states Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley. "Both our Microgrants and Public Engagement Content Awards enable early-career scientists to gain the skills and experience needed to engage effectively with non-scientists in communities across the U.S. We are excited to see the innovative projects this year's recipients will pursue."
Research!America is grateful to the Dana Foundation, Lasker Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, and science communicator Dennis Mangan for generous financial support to ensure the success of both the Civic Engagement Microgrants and Public Engagement Content Awards.
Civic Engagement Microgrant Program
Since 2018, the Civic Engagement Microgrant Program has supported groups of early-career scientists with resources and funding of up to $4,000 to support innovative science outreach initiatives. These initiatives build dialogue with public officials and community leaders while fostering skills important to becoming effective ambassadors of science, such as communications and media training, program planning, and a working knowledge of public policy and government. This year's 17 Microgrant groups, led by students in master's, Ph.D., postdoc, and professional programs, were selected from a highly competitive pool of 132 applicants.
The 2025-2026 Microgrant winners are located throughout the country, from Alabama to Wyoming. Their proposed projects include bringing brain science to life for elementary school students, providing high school teachers with hands-on lab experience, and a science expo at a state capitol building. For additional information about this year's projects, visit our Microgrant Program webpage.
This year's grant recipients are:
- Brains, Not Bars: Reframing Addiction Through Science and Story | Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C.
- Brown for Science Diplomacy | Brown University, Providence, R.I.
- ChampionSTL: HIV Prevention Champions in St. Louis | School of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
- Dreams of a Scientist | University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
- Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally (ESAL) | Indiana University, Indianapolis, Ind.
- Graduate Researchers Advancing Policy, Health and Science (GRAPHS) | Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
- Maternal to Adolescent Eating, Nutrition and Development Lab | University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.
- Neighborhood Scientists | University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
- Neuroscience Community Outreach Group | University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
- Northern Nevada Brain Bee | University of Nevada, Reno, Nev.
- Science Outside the Lines | Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md.
- Science Policy Advocacy Network at UAB | University of Alabama, Birmingham, Ala.
- The Panther Immunization and Trust Taskforce (PITT) | University of Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Together for Warmth | Columbia University, New York City.
- TriAxis Community Engagement Collective | Arkansas Baptist College, Little Rock, Ark.
- UCSF Anatomy Learning Center Open Lab (ALCOL) | University of California, San Francisco.
- WCGS Brain Awareness Day | Weill Cornell Graduate School, New York City.
Public Engagement Content Awards
The Public Engagement Content Awards program provides stipends of up to $5,000 to individuals to develop open-access curricula in science communication and other public engagement skills. This year's eight awardees were selected from a competitive pool of 91 applicants. From California to Georgia, the 2025-2026 Public Engagement Content Award recipients will create learning resources for other scientists, such as a science communication toolkit incorporating art and comics, a "train-the-trainer" style course to provide STEM learning to incarcerated youth, and a partnership with senior living communities to train pre-med students in ways of addressing medical misinformation and mistrust among senior citizens. For more information, visit our Public Engagement Content Awards program webpage.
This year's Public Engagement Content Award recipients are:
- Brean Prefontaine | Duke University, Durham, N.C.
- Breana Turner | Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
- Ivette Planell-Mendez | Emory University, DeKalb County, Ga.
- Beth Hoffman | University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Charlotte Vaughn | University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
- Megan Nelson | University of California, San Diego, Calif.
- Saurja DasGupta | University of Notre Dame, St. Joseph County, Ind.
- Letonia Copeland-Hardin | University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
Contact Glenn O'Neal, Senior Director of Communications, at 571-482-2737 or goneal@researchamerica.org with press inquiries.
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About Research!America
Research!America is a non-profit medical and health research advocacy alliance which advocates for science, discovery, and innovation to achieve better health for all. For over 30 years, Research!America has been commissioning surveys to help understand public support for medical, health, and scientific research, among other state, national, and global issues related to public health and research and innovation. Visit www.researchamerica.org.