International Neuroethics Society (INS)

This grant supports the 2023 INS Neuroethics Essay Contest, a free scholastic activity open to secondary and postsecondary students, postdocs, and trainees throughout the world. The contest encourages students and trainees to examine ethical concerns in research, law, and policy related to the mind and brain. 

INS organizes the essay contest in collaboration with the International Youth Neuroscience Association. In 2023, the contest included four submission categories—Academic, General Audience, High School, and a new Video Essay Category, which accepted submissions in seven languages with English subtitles. Winning and honorable mention authors receive cash prizes, travel stipends to attend INS’s annual meeting, and opportunities to publish their work. 

The essay contest is open to any student or trainee regardless of their research area, discipline, location, or residency status. Over its nine-year history, the contest has received submissions from authors based in 38 countries. With this grant, INS is devoting more staff time to reaching out to and establishing relationships with students, trainees, and supporting professionals who are from under-resourced communities and underrepresented populations to ensure that a diversity of voices and cultural perspectives are represented in the essays. 

This grant supports the Dana Education objective to empower people of all ages to use neuroscience in their everyday lives by strengthening their knowledge of the field’s real-world applications and ethical considerations through sustained informal education programs. 

This grant also supports the Dana NextGen objective to prepare trainees at early career stages to think critically and reflexively about the ethical, legal, and societal implications raised by real-world neuroscience applications through experiential learning and innovative curricula.