Rice University in Houston has announced a $2 million grant from the Bahamas-based Templeton World Charity Foundation to study how scientists around the world view religion and science.

The grant will enable Rice researchers to survey ten thousand biologists and physicists in six countries — China, France, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States — to better understand the relationship of science, religion, and, where relevant, spirituality, as well as how religion and spirituality influence their research agendas, daily interactions with students, and ethical discussions and decisions. In addition to the dataset, the project will produce a series of articles and a book aimed at a general audience to advance the conversation beyond those in the scientific community.

After surveying the participants, researchers will conduct qualitative follow-up interviews with six hundred scientists. Elaine Howard Ecklund, associate professor of sociology at Rice, will head the study and said she hopes the findings will improve public policy efforts to increase productive dialogue between scientists and religious communities by uncovering similarities and differences in how the survey respondents perceive the proper relationship between science, religion, and spirituality.

"With seemingly constant developments in the areas of science and religion, these two subjects have taken an important role on the global stage," said Ecklund. "Our research team can think of no better way to discover how the international science community negotiates religion than to go straight to the source and study scientists themselves."