Announcing the Recipients of our 2026 Innovations in Positive Health Grants
We are pleased to announced the recipients of our 2026 Innovations in Positive Health Grants., which support pioneering research at early stages of development that focuses on positive health science or communication and translation sciences related to positive health science. These seed grants will provide up to $40,000 in funding for up to one year.
- Exploring cognitive and neural mechanisms of spiritual development
- Project Description: The Global Flourishing Study found spirituality is a key predictor of flourishing across cultures, and unaddressed spiritual needs in clinical settings predict poorer quality of life. We will test whether a secular program that combines character strengths/virtue and mindfulness practice can promote spiritual development, and how developmental changes relate to well-being, positive affect, and clinical symptom. Neural mechanisms of spiritual development will also be identified. The data will provide novel insights into the interplay of virtue, spiritualty, and well-being.
- Investigators
- Sara Lazar, PhD, Principal Investigator, Associate Researcher & Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
- Tamas Madl, PhD, Lecturer in Consciousness, University of Vienna, and External Researcher in Machine Learning, Austrian Research Institute for AI
- Building for Positive Health and Well-Being: Piloting Participatory Image Annotation Workflows to Advance AI/ML Approaches for Urban Health Research in Africa
- Project Description: Using Accra as a pilot, we will develop a participatory street view image annotation protocol, informed by local residents, to identify features that promote positive health in African cities. The findings will produce: 1) expanded understanding of the physical and perceptual urban characteristics that Accra residents associate with positive health and well-being, and 2) annotated street view images to support future computer vision workflows amplifying African perspectives in automated urban health measurement for health-centered urban planning.
- Investigators
- Hiwot Y. Zewdie, PhD, Yerby Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard Chan School
- Francine Laden, ScD, Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Departments of Environmental Health and Epidemiology, Harvard Chan School, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Dept of Medicine Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
- Seth Okyere, PhD, Teaching Assistant Professor, Urban Studies Program, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA, and Visiting Associate Professor, Urban Planning Lab, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Osaka, Japan
- Adewale Oyeyemi, PhD, Associate Professor of Population Health at the College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University
- Peter James, ScD, Associate Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis School of Medicine
- Jaime E. Hart, ScD, Associate Professor, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Department of Environmental Health, Harvard Chan School
We look forward to seeing how these pioneering projects deepen our understanding of flourishing and translate positive health research into healthier people, communities, and environments.
