The Bial Foundation, created in 1994 by Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial, supports scientific study of the human being in both physical and spiritual aspects. It funds neuroscience, psychophysiology and parapsychology, and also promotes research projects through grants, symposia and an online documentation centre and database.
- Since 1994, the foundation has awarded biennial grants, gradually increasing to the current maximum of €60,000; as of August 2026 it has supported 946 projects in 31 countries.
- About 29% of its grants go to parapsychology, with a further 20% spanning parapsychology and psychophysiology.
- In 2025, the foundation launched Beyond the Brain, a 16-episode documentary series broadcast on Portuguese public television RTP1 and available internationally.
Research Funding
BIAL’s first grants were made in 1994 and have been made biennially ever since. Each is worth up to €60,000. To date (August 2026) the foundation has funded 946 projects across sixteen editions, engaging roughly 1,900 researchers and institutions in 31 countries. More than 2,320 papers have appeared in indexed journals; of these, over 2,000 were published in outlets whose average impact factor is 4.1, and 394 appeared in journals with an impact factor of 5 or higher.1BIAL (2026a). In the 2024/2025 round, 434 applications were registered from 29 countries and of these, 82 were selected. Of the approved grants, 51% fell under Psychophysiology, 29% under Parapsychology, and 20% under both areas combined.2BIAL (2025). Applications for the 2026/2027 (seventeenth) round closed on the 31st August 2026.3BIAL (2026b).
The BIAL website grants section gives the researcher(s) for each grant, the host institution, the title of the research and a link to the results once completed. The breakdown of grant statistics is available on the website as a downloadable PDF.
Symposia
Since 1996, Bial has held biennial symposia under the heading ‘Behind and Beyond the Brain’, a platform for Bial-funded researchers in neuroscience and parapsychology to present their findings. Topics covered include placebo effects, healing and meditation, mind-matter interactions, sleep and dreams, intuition and decision-making, memory, exceptional experiences, emotions and, the most recent, enhancing the mind. Details are available on the website.
The 14th Symposium was held in Porto in April 2024, with the theme of Creativity. Edward Kelly of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia delivered a keynote address.4DOPS (2024). The 15th Symposium was held in Porto in April 2026, at which a study by Marinho, Magalhães, Guedes and Sousa gave an overview of grant-funded publication output from 1994 to February 2026.5BIAL (2026a).
Participants in the symposia series have included:
Miguel Castelo-Branco (Coimbra)
Axel Cleeremans (Brussels)
António Damásio (Los Angeles)
Hoyt Edge (Florida)
Peter Fenwick (London)
Eberhard Fetz (Washington)
Fernando Gil (Sorbonne)
Allan Hobson (Harvard)
Jerome Kagan (Harvard)
Irving Kirsch (Boston)
Lorenza Colzato (Leiden)
Stephen Kosslyn (San Francisco)
Stephen Laberge (Stanford)
Dietrich Lehmann (Zurich)
Fernando Lopes da Silva (Amsterdam)
Edwin C May (Palo Alto),
Robert Morris (Edinburgh)
Dean Radin (Nevada)
Alcino Silva (Los Angeles)
Ian Stevenson (Virginia)
Robert Stickgold (Harvard)
Beyond the Brain Docuseries
In May 2025 BIAL introduced Beyond the Brain, a sixteen-episode documentary series produced jointly with RTP, Portugal’s public broadcaster.6BIAL (2025b). Episodes run about thirty minutes each and feature fifty scientists and specialists drawn from major international centres, among them Dean Radin and Helané Wahbeh of IONS. The opening installment, devoted to science and spirituality, aired on RTP1 on 12 May 2025; subsequent episodes followed every Monday. Subjects covered include telepathy, mediumship, channelling, near-death experiences and past-life memories. Produced in English, the series is accessible worldwide through the RTP Play streaming service and the dedicated site beyondthebrain.bialfoundation.com.
Documentation and Database
In 2014, Bial launched the documentation centre which serves as its document repository, including references, and downloadable research papers. Editions of the Bial Award, ‘Behind and Beyond the Brain’ symposia and grants for scientific research are all accessible and downloadable in most cases.
The foundation’s database includes information regarding projects in the fields of psychophysiology and parapsychology that have been supported by the Foundation since its inception in 1994 to the present time. This information is retrievable by keyword or more advanced searches. The database also indicates which documents are indexed in the various academic sources: SCOPUS and ISI Web of Science.
Michael Duggan
Works Cited
BIAL (2023). Grants: Grants programme for scientific research. [Full text.] Web page.
BIAL (2025a). Grants for Scientific Research 2024/2025: Results. [Full text.] Web page.
BIAL (2025b). Beyond the Brain docuseries. Web page.
BIAL (2026a). Bial Foundation opens applications for Grants for Scientific Research 2026/2027. [Full text.] EurekAlert!, 23 April 2026.
BIAL (2026b). Grants for Scientific Research 2026/2027. [Full text.] Web page.
DOPS (2024). DOPS researcher Dr. Edward Kelly to receive international recognition. [Full text.] Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia, 12 February 2024. Web page.