About The FPR

The Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Los Angeles. The FPR was founded in December 1999 with a gift from Robert Lemelson, a documentary filmmaker and psychological anthropologist on the UCLA faculty. The FPR’s scientific advisory board includes internationally recognized leaders in the fields of anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, neurobiology, epidemiology, and public health on the faculty at UCLA and USC.

MISSION

We support and advance interdisciplinary and integrative research and training on interactions of culture, neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology, with an emphasis on cultural processes as central. Our primary objective is to help articulate and support the creation of transformative paradigms that address issues of fundamental clinical and social concern.

GOALS

  • Change the culture of research by funding research programs and scholars who attempt to link levels of analysis.
  • Increase the degree to which research on human health, development, and well-being integrates psychocultural and neurobiological influences.
  • Strengthen the theoretical and methodological tools required to facilitate the integration of psychocultural and neuroscientific measures and constructs.
  • Increase the visibility of such integrative research, both within the academy, and outside.
  • Train the next generation of scientists capable of conducting research that integrates psychocultural and neuroscientific influences.
  • Increase the public awareness of the importance of such integrative research

TOPICAL FOCUS

From 2001 to 2015, the FPR operated in 3-year cycles. Each funding cycle aimed to focus on a specific area of interest to a wide variety of researchers and scholars, and ended with with an international, interdisciplinary conference at UCLA.

Topical focus (2012–2015)

Biological, Social, and Cultural Bases of Sex/Gender Differences

Topical focus (2009–2012)

Culture, Brain, and Mental Illness

Topical focus (2006–2009)

Culture, Brain, and Emotion

Topical focus (2004–2006)

Trauma and the Interaction of Early Relational Experiences, Social Context, and Developmental Trajectories

Topical focus (2001–2004)

Cultural, Neurobiological, and Mental Health Determinants and Consequences of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The Foundation only makes grants to pre-selected non-profit organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds.