University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Charles R. Drew University for Science and Medicine (CDU)
Grant Information
Through the Dana Center Initiative, this grant supports a Dana Center for Neuroscience & Society in partnership between the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU). The Center builds on the institutional infrastructure of UCLA (a top-ranked public university) and CDU (a leading Historically Black Health Science Institute and Hispanic Serving Institution), as well as the local infrastructure of Los Angeles County (one of the most diverse counties in the country). It brings together scholars from neuroscience, social science, education, policy, and the humanities to work with local clinician-scholars, community partners, and organizations in South Los Angeles. Together they are developing and implementing a practice of community-partnered neuroscience to influence education, research, and systems change by centering the knowledge of local communities in neuroscience research. Through this work, the Center aims to develop new approaches and pedagogies that improve the societal impacts of neuroscientific knowledge, transforming how brain research connects to real-world needs, values, and experiences.
The Center begins with the lived experiences of those whose needs and expertise have been historically underrepresented in neuroscience. It acts as a creative incubator for generating new ways to develop research collaborations, train the next generation of scholars, and effect social change in genuine partnership with community members. Supplemental funding provided in 2025 enables the Center to strengthen its administrative infrastructure and enhance program coordination capacity to more effectively steward community member participation and leadership.
The Center’s work aligns with the Dana Frontiers objectives to pilot innovative multidirectional engagement opportunities to embed community perspectives in research, policy, and decision-making and to support and empower neuroscience and society practitioners who champion inclusive, effective models of multidirectional engagement with diverse publics so that more communities can use neuroscience to address their priorities.
