ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
The Harvard Brain's Fusion Research Challenge (FusionRC, or “the Challenge”) is an international interdisciplinary research paper competition for high-achieving secondary school students (between the ages of 13 and 18).
The Challenge asks students to write a 1,000-word narrative review paper grounded in academic research that provides one answer to the question: How can intersecting ideas from different academic disciplines improve our understanding of the brain?
Narrative reviews may discuss interdisciplinary areas of studies that are actively being researched or propose new interdisciplinary approaches across the loosely defined field of brain sciences. The prompt is intended to be interpreted very broadly; prospective entrants should not be very concerned about whether their paper idea qualifies. Entrants are especially encouraged to put ideas from the humanities and the sciences into conversation.
Example narrative review ideas include but are certainly not limited to:
The top three winning entries will be published in the Spring 2025 issue of The Harvard Brain alongside research from affiliates of Harvard University.
The deadline to submit to the 2025 Challenge is April 13, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST.
Submit here.
The Harvard Brain's Fusion Research Challenge (FusionRC, or “the Challenge”) is an international interdisciplinary research paper competition for high-achieving secondary school students (between the ages of 13 and 18).
The Challenge asks students to write a 1,000-word narrative review paper grounded in academic research that provides one answer to the question: How can intersecting ideas from different academic disciplines improve our understanding of the brain?
Narrative reviews may discuss interdisciplinary areas of studies that are actively being researched or propose new interdisciplinary approaches across the loosely defined field of brain sciences. The prompt is intended to be interpreted very broadly; prospective entrants should not be very concerned about whether their paper idea qualifies. Entrants are especially encouraged to put ideas from the humanities and the sciences into conversation.
Example narrative review ideas include but are certainly not limited to:
- Application of a philosophical theory towards the ethics of brain-computer interaction
- Approaches for computer science to further the field of linguistics
- Analysis of how journalism and literature influence society’s attitudes towards brain technologies
- Application of evolutionary biology experiment strategies to address reproducibility challenges in psychology research
- Proposal for how qualitative psychology methods can be applied to develop more humanistic computer science
The top three winning entries will be published in the Spring 2025 issue of The Harvard Brain alongside research from affiliates of Harvard University.
The deadline to submit to the 2025 Challenge is April 13, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST.
Submit here.
HISTORY OF THE CHALLENGE
Neurological and psychiatric illnesses often result in fundamental alterations in patients’ experience of core aspects of being human, such as memory and mood. To treat these patients in a humanistic manner, it is important to incorporate perspectives from numerous fields across both the humanities and the sciences.
The mission of The Harvard Brain is to promote conversation between different academic perspectives that examine human behavior and mental life, including those originating from the seven diverse fields that make up the Harvard MBB Interfaculty Initiative: Computer Science, History and Science, Human Evolutionary Biology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Psychology.
The Challenge was founded by The Harvard Brain to encourage young scholars to join this conversation and advance our understanding of the brain through interdisciplinary inquiry.
Neurological and psychiatric illnesses often result in fundamental alterations in patients’ experience of core aspects of being human, such as memory and mood. To treat these patients in a humanistic manner, it is important to incorporate perspectives from numerous fields across both the humanities and the sciences.
The mission of The Harvard Brain is to promote conversation between different academic perspectives that examine human behavior and mental life, including those originating from the seven diverse fields that make up the Harvard MBB Interfaculty Initiative: Computer Science, History and Science, Human Evolutionary Biology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Psychology.
The Challenge was founded by The Harvard Brain to encourage young scholars to join this conversation and advance our understanding of the brain through interdisciplinary inquiry.
ENTERING THE CHALLENGE
The Challenge runs once a year with entries opening in winter and a deadline in April. The logistics of the challenge are described below.
Participants should draft their narrative review paper formatted based upon the APA Style Guide (7th edition) with a strict word limit of 1,000. (Click here for further information on what a narrative review paper is.) Importantly, the narrative review paper should cite articles in peer-reviewed journals upon which the paper bases its claims. JSTOR, PubMed, and Google Scholar represent excellent resources to locate peer-reviewed articles to cite. All entries must be written in English.
All review papers must be submitted here prior to April 13, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST, with no exceptions granted.
Entry Fee: A $15 entry fee is required upon submission. All entry fees are donated to a nonprofit organization; for Spring 2025, fees will be donated to Mental Health America to sponsor mental health screenings. 1 in 5 people live with a mental illness, and two-thirds of people with mental illnesses are undiagnosed; every $15 entry fee will sponsor mental health screening for 16 people through Mental Health America, facilitating the diagnosis, treatment, and improvement of people living with mental illness. Please directly submit your entry fee as a $15 donation with your full name to our Mental Health American Classy fundraiser here. (Note: If you are not based in the United States, there is an option to donate an equivalent amount in your native currency. Please reference this convertor to determine the appropriate amount. For reference, 15 USD is equivalent to 14.41 Euros, 1,278.31 Rupees, 21.52 Canadian Dollars, 24.06 Australian Dollars, 109.46 Renminbi, and 116.72 Hong Kong Dollars.)
Following the Challenge deadline, judges will anonymously review all submissions. The Harvard Brain will notify all entrants of winners in early May. The Spring 2025 issue, including the three Challenge Winners’ papers, will be published on the website in May 2025.
The Challenge runs once a year with entries opening in winter and a deadline in April. The logistics of the challenge are described below.
Participants should draft their narrative review paper formatted based upon the APA Style Guide (7th edition) with a strict word limit of 1,000. (Click here for further information on what a narrative review paper is.) Importantly, the narrative review paper should cite articles in peer-reviewed journals upon which the paper bases its claims. JSTOR, PubMed, and Google Scholar represent excellent resources to locate peer-reviewed articles to cite. All entries must be written in English.
All review papers must be submitted here prior to April 13, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST, with no exceptions granted.
Entry Fee: A $15 entry fee is required upon submission. All entry fees are donated to a nonprofit organization; for Spring 2025, fees will be donated to Mental Health America to sponsor mental health screenings. 1 in 5 people live with a mental illness, and two-thirds of people with mental illnesses are undiagnosed; every $15 entry fee will sponsor mental health screening for 16 people through Mental Health America, facilitating the diagnosis, treatment, and improvement of people living with mental illness. Please directly submit your entry fee as a $15 donation with your full name to our Mental Health American Classy fundraiser here. (Note: If you are not based in the United States, there is an option to donate an equivalent amount in your native currency. Please reference this convertor to determine the appropriate amount. For reference, 15 USD is equivalent to 14.41 Euros, 1,278.31 Rupees, 21.52 Canadian Dollars, 24.06 Australian Dollars, 109.46 Renminbi, and 116.72 Hong Kong Dollars.)
Following the Challenge deadline, judges will anonymously review all submissions. The Harvard Brain will notify all entrants of winners in early May. The Spring 2025 issue, including the three Challenge Winners’ papers, will be published on the website in May 2025.