Announcement: 30 October 2026 · UKPX added: 5 November 2026 · UFO / UAP research
A team proposing to investigate reported UAP contact experiences has received a $100,000 research grant from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). The award funds a prospective investigation: the announcement is about a study to be carried out, rather than results already obtained.
IONS identifies the winning project as Instrumenting the Contact Experience, with researchers Peter Skafish, Brian Lord, David Dominguez Hooper, Damon Abraham, Jacob Haqq-Misra and Garry Nolan. Its prize page says the work is intended to run for one year.
A research award, rather than a finding
The Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize received more than 80 applications, according to IONS. The institute describes this year’s award as funding for implementation, analysis and reporting, rather than recognition of a completed paper. Its public webinar page dates the winner announcement to 30 October and now provides a replay.
That makes the proposal itself the useful starting point. What will count as a reported experience, what will be recorded independently, and what comparison will the researchers make? The three-page design outline supplies a more specific answer than the broad idea of testing “contact”.
Two kinds of meditation, with reference recordings
The outline compares contact-seeking and grounding meditation in one group of four to eight practitioners at a southwestern US site. Unattended equipment recordings provide another reference. Each campaign randomises five experimental and two active-control nights.
Participants learn their assigned practice before meditating. They record individual accounts before discussing the night together.
Physiological measurements, sky recordings, environmental records and random-number systems will share a timeline. Reviewers unaware of the assigned practice will assess aerial events. The comparisons concern reported contact intensity and unresolved-event rates.
What to watch as the study develops
The outline separates reported experience from unresolved aerial events. A difference in one measure would not automatically explain the other.
Participants’ knowledge of their assignment and the small, single-site group will matter when eventual findings are interpreted.
The project is described as pre-registered. UKPX checked the announcement and slides, but has not verified a separate public registration or completed dataset. Those records remain follow-ups.
Sources and Story Radar
IONS: 2026 prize recipients, award terms and project team · IONS: 30 October announcement and replay listing · Winning study’s three-page experimental-design outline.
Discovery route: KASE Weekly, 4 November. Two publishers checked in this source chain: IONS and KASE. The three IONS documents/pages belong to the same originating organisation; KASE’s later summary is not an independent finding or a second experiment. Checked 5 November 2026.
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