3 research teams receive Innovations in Research and Practice Grants

Over the next two years, three research teams will receive a total of $100,000 to conduct projects designed to enhance student-athletes' psychosocial well-being and mental health.

This is the 11th year of the NCAA Innovations in Research and Practice Grant Program. The panel that reviewed the proposals was composed of current student-athletes, academics, athletics administrators, an athletic trainer, a coach and a mental health clinician. The reviewers hope the projects will lead to programs that other schools can adopt for use on their campuses or adapt to fit their own needs. 

The grant program's timeline has expanded to two years, with an expectation that during the final six months of the grant period (January-June 2027), project teams will refine (if necessary) and widely share their findings with those in the NCAA membership for local adoption or adaptation.

"In 10 years of Innovations grant programming, it became clear to us that one of the most challenging aspects of the project was for our grantees to carve out time to share their resources with other schools. That's why we've updated the grant program to a two-year funding cycle and required that projects identify specific benchmarks during their last six  months for sharing the resources they're building with the NCAA membership," said Eric Laudano, the panel chair and executive senior associate director of athletics at Saint Joseph's. "This year, over 100 proposals were submitted, and with so many strong projects and compelling collaborations, it was challenging for the panel to identify the finalists and select the three recipients. We intentionally funded three very different projects in hopes that other campuses can easily find at least one of these concepts for their own use in the coming years." 

These three teams will make their findings available to the membership in 2027:

Bowling Green

• Resilience, Education and Cognitive Attribution Program: A Dual-Path Attributional Intervention for Addressing Sports Betting Related Online Abuse.
• Yoonki Chun, Ph.D. (project director), and Meredith Flaherty, Ph.D.

Emory

• Rise With Resilience: A Clinical Trial on the Effects of Mindfulness Training for Enhancing Recovery Among Injured Student-Athletes.
• Nicholas Giordano, Ph.D. (project director), and Kyle Hammond, M.D.

Temple

• AI-Powered Mentorship for Holistic Athlete Development.
• Elizabeth Taylor, Ph.D. (project director); Jeff Nyquist, Ph.D.; and Robin Goetz.

Members of the external review panel that selected the grant recipients:

• Panel chair Eric Laudano, executive senior associate director of athletics, Saint Joseph's.
• Jillian Barend, women's golf student-athlete, Siena.
• Reece Farrow, men's tennis student-athlete, Adelphi.
• S. Marlon Gayadeen, associate professor of criminal justice, Buffalo State.
• Laura Kaiser, women's volleyball student-athlete, Illinois College.
• Jeff Ruser, sport psychologist, Notre Dame.
• Thomas Saylor, faculty athletics representative, Concordia-St. Paul.
• Ally Smith, faculty member in health and sport sciences, Otterbein.
• Patricia Thomas, director of athletics, District of Columbia.
• Alaina Woo, women's basketball head coach, Pomona-Pitzer.