This proposal presents a research-via-training project that will transfer knowledge from the U.S. to Europe and allow the experienced researcher to deepen her study of (re-)emerging scientific fields to advance her career significantly. The project explores how scientists and other actors currently re-frame psychedelics in a scientific model to make them into licensed medicines. Since their introduction into Western science and culture (1930s-60s), psychedelic substances such as psilocybin or LSD have been highly controversial. Although early research indicated promising psychiatric applications, Western governments began to see psychedelics as a threat to public health in the 1960s and placed them into the most restrictive drug category, ascribing them a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use. After coming to an almost complete standstill for several decades, psychedelic research is slowly re-emerging since 2000, highlighting again their potential for treating mental health issues such as addiction, depression, or PTSD. Since neither the molecules nor regulations have changed, this project investigates which socio-political conditions have enabled this revival (e.g., changes in the scientific or broader culture, risk-benefit evaluations). It traces how the responsible re-integration of psychedelics is fostered through the interplay of actor constellations, the production of scientific knowledge, and sociotechnical imaginaries. Using a qualitative research methodology and approaches from Science and Technology Studies (STS), it focuses on three molecules that are at the center of contemporary research in the U.S. (the country currently at the forefront of psychedelic research): MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine. The project results will yield important insights into how psychedelic science and society are co-produced, and provide timely policy recommendations with regard to drug classifications, and drug and public health policies.

PHERECLOS builds upon the theory of science capital and the experience that Children’s Universities (CUs) have made in the Third Mission of universities. With their engagement with children and young people, they became intermediaries between various actors in the educational and social landscape. As translators of the concerns, messages and knowledge of other parties (incl. business and industry, the state, civic society organizations etc.) they help to dismantle institutional boundaries of universities towards a wider society. The project will establish 6 "Local Education Clusters" (LECs), which bring together schools and further relevant actors in the education ecosystem of a particular pilot region, supported by a peer mentoring programme. The LECs will be incubators for enabling a dialogue between various parties and help to set up joint activities in (formal and non-formal) education, which help to develop collaborative learning environments as experimental testbeds for schools. At the same time they impact on the quality of science engagement opportunities in these areas. PHERECLOS will implement a digital “OpenBadge” ecosystem which labels institutions as reliable and responsive actors and showcases all LEC parties to become real change agents in education. At the same time, this ecosystem will testify individual achievements with respect to STEAM engagement in formal or non-formal settings or even unintended learning outcomes. The regional effectiveness and impact will be monitored by academic transfer and implementation research and lead to the development of implementation guidelines and policy briefs to enhance the sustainability of the overall approach. PHERECLOS promotes the territorial dimension of local education clusters in all their manifold facets and their catalyzing role relating to access to STEAM and higher education, critical thinking and informed decision making in a wider societal context – including competitiveness and sustainable growth.