Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS)

This grant will continue support for the FENS-Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week grants program in Europe. The program will provide grants of up to €1000 each for outreach and engagement activities organized in celebration of the 2025 Brain Awareness Week campaign. 

FENS has successfully administered the FENS/Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week grants program since 2006. Our continued collaboration with FENS will help expand the impact of Brain Awareness Week by reaching new countries and more diverse audiences through FENS/Dana-supported projects. During this year’s call for applications, FENS will seek projects focused on topics in neuroscience and society, demonstrating FENS’s shared commitment to the Foundation’s new mission and recognition of Brain Awareness Week’s tremendous potential as a platform for advancing that mission worldwide. These projects will go beyond traditional forms of outreach focused on basic neuroscience to engage audiences in dialogue around topics such as artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, the ethical use of animals in research, and the intersection of neuroscience and the arts. Applications will be evaluated based on the project’s alignment with the Dana Foundation’s mission and values and the proposed plan to measure community impact. FENS will select projects that are innovative in their approach to outreach and engagement; operate at the intersection between neuroscience and disciplines such as ethics, law, policy, humanities, and the arts; and are from countries and regions that have been underrepresented in past Brain Awareness Week campaigns.   

This grant supports the Dana Education objective to support sustained informal education that aims to strengthen knowledge of neuroscience and its connections to society and empower people of all ages to use that knowledge in their everyday lives.