The Consortium on Moral Decision-Making at Penn State is seeking proposals for Ember Grants to support up-start interdisciplinary research related to the conceptual and empirical study of human morality and ethical decision-making. The deadline for submissions is March 6 at 5 p.m. EST. A number of proposals will be awarded, based on review by a team of Consortium members, by the third week of March 2026.
The grant program is open to faculty-led teams at Penn State, with a focus on interdisciplinary teams from within the Consortium’s faculty members. Graduate student collaborators are welcome as part of application teams, but there should be a faculty PI. Collaborators from outside Penn State are allowed, but the lead PI should be based at one of the Penn State campuses.
According to consortium director Daryl Cameron, Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute and associate professor of psychology at Penn State, understanding human morality and ethics requires drawing upon insights from a diverse range of disciplines. “The goal of the funding call is to motivate scholars to find such connections in exploring the nature of human morality.”
The Consortium, which is funded by The College of the Liberal Arts' philosophy and psychology departments, Social Science Research Institute, Rock Ethics Institute, and McCourtney Institute for Democracy, cultivates new, interdisciplinary projects. The Consortium was previously supported through an SSRI Level 4 Interdisciplinary Research Initiative grant to facilitate the long-term growth of the network and the training of early career researchers.