Subject Award · Social Sciences · 2026
The ten finalist universities are the ten highest-ranked on the Psychology collaboration index, listed here alphabetically until the full index publishes on 15 September. Each finalist is represented by an academic whose recent work exemplifies why: a real project, drawn from the open scholarly record, cited so you can check it.
The finalists
Mental disorders following COVID-19 and other epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Beyond its direct physical toll, COVID-19 placed a heavy burden on mental health, and earlier epidemics offer a point of comparison. Searching five databases and synthesising prevalence estimates from probability samples during COVID-19 and past outbreaks, the study assembles a picture of mental disorder in the general community rather than only among patients already in care.
Data on transgender and gender diverse people who return to living as their sex assigned at birth have been scarce, leaving the topic to argument rather than evidence. Drawing on the US Transgender Survey of 27,715 adults, the study examines how many reported a history of detransition and the reasons they gave, combining multiple-choice answers with analysis of their own written responses.
The normative modeling framework for computational psychiatry
Computational psychiatry seeks quantitative tools for understanding mental health, and normative modelling is one of its frameworks. Published in Nature Protocols, the work sets out this framework in practical detail, giving researchers in the field a protocol they can follow to apply the approach in their own studies.
A sense of belonging, the feeling of deep connection with social groups, places and experiences, is a fundamental human need that predicts mental, physical, social, economic and behavioural outcomes. Reviewing the conceptual issues that have hampered progress, the work offers a new integrative framework for understanding and studying belonging, and charts key avenues for future research and practice.
Minority stress theory: Application, critique, and continued relevance
Minority stress theory, first articulated in integrative form in 2003, explains how social, psychological and structural factors produce mental health inequalities facing sexual minority populations. Reviewing two decades of developments, the work weighs critiques and applications of the theory and reflects on its continued relevance amid rapidly changing social and policy contexts.
Comparing network structures on three aspects: A permutation test.
Psychologists increasingly model constructs as networks of interacting parts, and have moved from describing single networks to comparing them across populations, but the statistical tools were missing. This article presents the network comparison test, which uses resampling-based permutation testing to compare two independent data sets on network structure, the strength of individual connections, and overall strength.
Mindfulness-based programmes are being widely implemented to reduce stress in nonclinical settings, yet a comprehensive evidence synthesis had been lacking. Following a detailed preregistered protocol developed with public and professional stakeholders, the team searched thirteen databases and systematically reviewed randomised controlled trials to assess whether such programmes actually promote mental health compared with no intervention or alternatives.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic
Pulling together the studies published across the pandemic years, the work systematically reviews and meta-analyses the evidence on what happened to children's learning during COVID-19. Establishing what the literature collectively shows, rather than what any single study reported, is the groundwork that any serious response to lost learning depends on.
Changing personality traits with the help of a digital personality change intervention
Personality traits carry real consequences and can shift across a lifetime, but whether people can deliberately change them was unsettled. A three-month digital intervention was tested in a randomised controlled trial with 1,523 participants: the intervention group changed more than controls and in the directions they intended, changes that people close to them also noticed and that were still present three months later.
How COVID-19 shaped mental health: from infection to pandemic effects
This review considers the mental health consequences of COVID-19 at two levels: the effects of infection itself, and the effects of living through a pandemic. Keeping those strands apart matters, because they arise through different routes and call for quite different responses from clinicians and from policy.
Exclusive to partners
Partners verify their data, feature their academics, and are eligible for the Subject Awards. Finalists are identified from open data; winners are decided by our editorial team and announced on 15 September 2026.
Explore partnership →The wider slate
Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8
Mental disorders following COVID-19 and other epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8
The prevalence of mental health problems in sub-Saharan adolescents: A systematic review
Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8
Towards a youth mental health paradigm: a perspective and roadmap
The promise of machine learning in predicting treatment outcomes in psychiatry
Digital interventions for the treatment of depression: A meta-analytic review.
Theory Construction Methodology: A Practical Framework for Building Theories in Psychology