Philosopher Daniel Haybron (St. Louis University) has won a $5.1 million for a three year project on happiness and well-being. Most of that funding—$4.6 million— is coming from the John Templeton Foundation, with the remaining $453,000 coming from St. Louis University. From a press release from SLU:

Titled Happiness and Well-Being: Integrating Research Across the Disciplines, the project will promote dialogue and collaboration among well-being researchers across a wide range of disciplines, including the sciences, philosophy, and theology and religious studies. Advising Haybron on the project will be a board of 14 leading well-being researchers, including some of the best-known figures in the field such as Ed Diener and Martin Seligman. Senior advisers for the project include Diener (science), Valerie Tiberius (philosophy), and Ellen Charry (theology and religious studies).

“Well-being research has become a huge field in recent years, and is having a growing impact on policy and people’s lives. But the sciences and humanities still tend to run on separate tracks, and could learn a great deal from each other,” said Haybron. “This is a very exciting opportunity to gather some of our best minds to think about how scientific work on well-being can be enriched by deeper engagement with philosophical and religious thought. And just as important, how philosophical and religious thought can profit from conversation with the sciences.”

One key innovation of the project is a requirement that all scientific studies funded by the project will include at least one philosopher, theologian or religious studies scholar.

You can learn more about the project at its website.