Research Grants

Children and Screens’ Interdisciplinary Research Grants Program provides funding, on a competitive basis, to support cutting-edge scientific research projects that advance our knowledge and understanding of digital media and child development. These research grants are intended to deliver preliminary funds to interdisciplinary, interinstitutional research teams so that they may gain the results necessary to apply and compete for major funding from traditional funding sources.

Open Calls

There are currently no active grant calls. We encourage you to check back periodically for updates or subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear about new opportunities.

Questions can be sent to grants@childrenandscreens.org.

Each grant team must consist of at least one primary member (PI, Co-PI, or Co-I) who attended the 2025 Digital Media and Developing Minds International Scientific Congress. Additional investigators who did not attend the Congress may be included on the grant. Please note, it is highly encouraged to include other investigators who also attended the Congress, and teams that can demonstrate how the event specifically led to or strengthened the partnerships among grant team members will be reviewed favorably. It is also encouraged to include at least one junior or early career member on the grant team.

Please see the full call for proposals for eligibility details.

Grantees will be asked to self-assess their project on a variety of dimensions including scientific originality, interdisciplinary scope, integrative quality, conceptual links to the grant program topics and themes, and the likely scientific impacts of products produced by the project.

Please see the full call for proposals for further details on reporting requirements.

All interested applicants must submit a three-to-five-page Letter of Intent (LOI) via email in order to be considered for invitation to submit a detailed proposal for a grant. This letter should be a google doc or a .docx file. The letter should be emailed to grants@childrenandscreens.org.

Following a review of the Letters of Intent, a selected number of candidates will be invited by Friday, December 5, 2025 to submit a detailed proposal.

Please see the full call for proposals for further letter of intent details.

This timeline is subject to change; applicants will be kept informed of any changes.

- Grants Program Guidelines Published: Monday, August 4, 2025
- Letter of Intent Deadline: Friday, October 3, 2025, by 5pm ET
- Invitations to Apply Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025
- Full Proposal Deadline: Friday, February 6, 2026 by 5pm ET
- Questions from Reviewers Sent to Applicants: Week of March 30, 2026
- Answers from Applicants Due: Friday, May 1, 2026, by 5pm ET
- Proposal Status Notification: Friday, June 5, 2026
- Start Date: As soon as possible

Please see the full call for proposals for further timeline details.

Projects in Progress

Children and Screens Announces Nearly $150,000 Research Grant to Study AI Companions and Adolescent Well-Being

As young people increasingly interact with AI companions designed to simulate friendship and offer emotional support, researchers know little about how this technology affects child development. To help answer these questions, Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development has awarded nearly $150,000 to support an interdisciplinary study examining the relationship between AI companion use, social relationships, and adolescent mental health.

The grant, awarded through the Institute’s 2025 Digital Media and Developing Minds Interdisciplinary Research Grant, will support a study led by Dr. Xiaoran Sun (University of Minnesota), Dr. Ying Xu (Harvard University), and Dr. Thomas Robinson (Stanford University). The study, “Adolescent AI Companion Use: Bidirectional Links with Social Relationships and Mental Health,” will track 100 adolescents (ages 13-17) over 21 days to examine how AI companion use relates to adolescent relationships and mental health. Read the full announcement.

Past Projects

Project	Year	Amount	Investigator(s)
Project EMBRACE – Everyday Mother-Baby Relations and Cellphone Engagement	2024-2025	$300,000	Brandon T. McDaniel, PhD (Mirro Center for Research and Innovation, Parkview Health), Alison K. Ventura, PhD (California Polytechnic State University), Lara N. Wolfers, PhD (University of Amsterdam), Sarah M. Coyne, PhD (Brigham Young University), and Adam M. Galovan, PhD (University of Alberta)
Use of Advanced Analytics to Understand Brain-Behavior SMA Relationships in ABCD Data	2021-2022	$100,000	Marc Potenza (Yale University) and Yihong Zhao (Columbia University)
Characterizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Screen Media Use in the ABCD Cohort	2020-2021	$99,946	Susan Tapert (University of California) and the National, Multi-Site Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study Team
Tweens, Screens, and Mental Health Pre- and Post-COVID-19: Are the Kids Alright	2020-2021	$53,764	Sheri Madigan (University of Calgary), Dillon Browne (University of Waterloo), Brae McArthur (University of Calgary), Nicole Racine (University of Calgary), Suzanne Tough (University of Calgary), Sheila McDonald (University of Calgary)
Media Use and Young Children’s Development	2020-2021	$99,043	Stephanie M. Reich (University of California, Irvine) and Natasha Cabrera (University of Maryland)
The New Norms of Adolescence: Examining Predictors and Consequences of Sexting	2018-2019	$100,000	Jennifer Stevens Aubrey (University of Arizona), Hye Jeong Choi (University of Missouri), Elizabeth Daniels (Colorado State University – Colorado Springs), and Ashton Speno (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville)
Development of a Comprehensive Assessment of Family Media Exposure	2017-2019	$99,993	Rachel Barr (Georgetown University), Deborah Nichols (Purdue University), Sarah Coyne (Brigham Young University), Jenny Radesky (University of Michigan School of Medicine), and Heather Kirkorian (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Parent and Peer Influences on Social Media Use in Early Adolescence: Implications for Psychosocial and Behavioral Health	2017-2018	$100,000	Linda Charmaraman (Wellesley College), Megan Moreno (University of Wisconsin, Madison), and Jennifer Grossman (Wellesley College)