Back in September, we've introduced our Junior Researcher Grants Scheme. This is Prolific’s initiative to give away US$5,000 worth of credit to fund high quality research studies, as part of our ongoing mission to empower great research!

We were delighted with the positive response to this scheme! By the time the November deadline came around, we had received a total of 78 applications.

Reviewing the Applicants 🔬

We had asked eligible candidates to submit a brief proposal describing their key research questions, methodologies, and study costs. Plus, we had requested evidence of pre-registration (either via the Open Science Framework or via AsPredicted) and a commitment to open science practices.

Five members of our team carefully reviewed all 78 applications. We used a democratic and iterative three-stage process to assess the applications. In this process, we cared most about:

• the potential for substantial scientific and real-world impact (although, you may wonder: What is the real world? 🤔 To us, real-world impact is all about practical, tangible impact for as many people as possible)
• the quality of the study design and methods and
• whether or not the study was suitable to be run on the Prolific platform.

Overall, the calibre of applications was extremely high and the diversity of applications remarkable. From political psychology and cognitive science, to moral psychology and health science – it’s been a real pleasure to review them all and learn about cutting-edge research by young scientists from all over the world. After a deep and thoughtful review process, we are now pleased to announce that we have chosen six winners to receive our Junior Researcher Grants! 👏

Huge thanks go to Susan and Zak (part of Prolific's Support Team) and Chris, Jim and Katia (Prolific's Research Team) for having reviewed the applications.

Announcing the Winners 🏆

Congratulations to our winners of the 2018 Prolific Junior Researcher Grants:

1. Claire Gothreau from Temple University ($1023.75)
2. Nikola Erceg from the University of Zagreb ($650.00)
3. Thorsten Erle and Nadja Born from the Universities of Cologne and Munich ($796.45)
4. Emma Henderson from Kingston University London ($943.07)
5. Dominik Stecula from the University of Pennsylvania ($1000.00)
6. Steph Suddell from the University of Bristol ($606.27).

We can't reveal the grant recipients' research topics just yet because it's important that their participants are unbiased when taking part in their studies in the coming weeks. But, once data collection is complete, we'll be excited to share with you what it is that they've been working on. Stay tuned... 😉

Thank you so much to all of our candidates for your efforts in submitting such a high standard of applications, and a big congratulations again to the winners! ❤️