Building a Scientific Research Program for the Study of Consciousness-Associated UAP Phenomena
Peter Skafish, Brian Lord, David Dominguez Hooper, Damon Abraham, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Garry Nolan
This grant-winning study will be conducted over the course of one year.
2026 Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize
https://noetic.org/prize/
The 2026 Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize awarded a $100,000 grant to one winning team (out of over 80 applications) to implement a scientifically rigorous study of consciousness-associated Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP, over an expected period of approximately one year.
This is not a prize for a completed paper, a theoretical essay, or a general research concept. It is a research grant intended to support the actual design, implementation, analysis, and reporting of a prospective study with an empirical component as key.
The winning proposal is ready to be carried out, and identifies a clear research question, describes the methods and instrumentation to be used, explains how data will be collected and analyzed, and shows that the applicant or team has the skills, infrastructure, and access needed to complete the study during the grant period.
The goal of the Prize is to help move the study of consciousness-associated UAP phenomena beyond anecdotal reports, suggestive imagery, and speculation by supporting work that yields rigorous and novel advancement of the field through applying transparent methods that produce real data, including meaningful empirical deliverables.
The 2026 Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize invites bold, scientifically rigorous inquiry into the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP; formerly “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” and “Unidentified Flying Object”) as an emerging phenomenon at the frontiers of science and culture that encompasses both consciousness research and fundamental physics. Recently, especially over the past decade, UAP has moved from cultural fringe to receiving serious governmental and scientific attention, raising unresolved questions about the nature of reality, perception, information, and the foundations of scientific knowledge. While much public discourse has centered on aerospace engineering and national security, a substantial body of encounter narratives and case documentation, as well as intelligence community whistleblower testimony in the official congressional record and now Executive Branch-released disclosure files, suggests significant relevance to humanities’ understanding of the fundamental nature and science of consciousness and the physical world.
Encounter narratives and case documentation include apparent non-verbal or telepathic communication, responsiveness of physical phenomena to human attention or intention, altered states of consciousness, and other elements that suggest the phenomenon, if genuine, may not fit neatly within conventional notions of distinctions between physical events and subjective experience. These reports do not by themselves establish a mechanism, nor are all such features equally well documented, but they raise a frontier scientific question: whether some UAP events may involve as-yet poorly understood relationships among perception, cognition, consciousness, information, and physical manifestation. Investigating that possibility with rigor will help clarify whether and how UAP-related data may bear on broader scientific understanding of consciousness, reality, and human potential.
Rather than presupposing any explanatory framework, this Prize seeks paradigm-expanding work that rigorously examines whether and how UAP-related data might inform, challenge, or advance emerging models of consciousness and impact our understanding of the foundations of physical science.
This prize is administered by the Institute of Noetic Sciences thanks to the generous gift from Linda G. O’Bryant, longtime supporter, board member, and past chair of the IONS Board Development Committee. Learn more about Linda and her support of IONS in this short video.
The Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize is inspired by IONS’ 50-year legacy. This legacy began when Apollo 14 astronaut and IONS founder, Dr. Edgar Mitchell had an epiphany in space. He began to question the prevailing scientific theory in which consciousness is a product of the human brain. The Edgar Mitchell Overview Effect Virtual Reality Experience allows you to experience a short account of Dr. Mitchell’s epiphany.
This virtual reality experience is online and free to the public. A 2D version is also available for those who don’t have access to virtual reality equipment.
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