The Pabst Steinmetz Creative Futures Awards at UCF recognize visionary, interdisciplinary collaborations from across colleges at UCF that are designed to meet community need, identify potential impact and have high probability for sustainability/scalability.
2025-26 Theme: Tech for the Human Good
In today’s technology driven world, the intersections of arts, humanities, health and technology present powerful opportunities for building community capacity.
Two awards of $25,000 each will be granted to UCF research teams collaborating across disciplines and with a community partner to address a specific need in the community. Projects should integrate technology in a meaningful way, have a clear measurement tool for outcomes and impact, and demonstrate the potential for sustainability.
Award Criteria
- Teams must consist of at least three people, one from the College of Arts and Humanities, one from another UCF college in the science and technology field, and one representing a community partner.
- All proposals must contain an evaluation framework in the style of a logic model, including inputs and intended outcomes. (More information about logic models: https://wkkf.issuelab.org/resource/logic-model-development-guide.html)
Application & Selection process
- The Award/Evaluation Committee will be composed of
- UCF representatives: College of Arts and Humanities, College of Medicine, UCF tech/science representative
- Community representatives: Pabst Steinmetz Foundation Board Member, community representatives
- If a team is selected as the winner, the team leader (PI) will receive the award.
- Preview the application questions.
Annual Timeline
- September 15: Applications open
- 2025 Information session: October 3 via Zoom. Register here.
- October 15: Intent to Apply due (not required, but provides an opportunity for your application to be reviewed and provided feedback in advance of deadline)
- October 15-30: Application review for teams that have submitted an Intent to Apply
- December 15 at 11:59 p.m.: Application deadline
- Awards will be announced by January 30.
- April: Recognition event for new and previous awardees (attendance required)
Contact
Organizations or individuals looking for project partners should reach out to ___________.
FAQ
Is there a deadline for spending the funds?
Yes, the awards are intended to be a one-year project. Funds must be spent by May 30 of the year following the award (Example: project awarded in January 2025; funds must be spent by May 30, 2026.) Any unspent funds will be disbursed at the discretion of the dean of the UCF College of Arts and Humanities and may be reallocated to other initiatives.
Are reports required?
Yes, each project will be asked for one annual progress report, due date TBD. The contents of the report are up to the lead PI.
Can I apply by myself?
No, only teams can apply. Each team must consist of at least one person from the UCF College of Arts and Humanities, at least one person from another UCF unit or college, and at least one person from a community organization. United Arts has resources to help you connect with arts organizations, if desired: Community partners: United Arts directory
Why is the Intent to Apply optional?
Applicants who submit an Intent to Apply will have the opportunity to have their proposal reviewed before their final application is submitted. You will receive feedback from the committee that will strengthen your application.
Are there additional resources to help me strengthen my application?
Yes, using this guide will help direct you toward a stronger application.
News
2 Teams Awarded 2024 Pabst Steinmetz Foundation Arts and Wellness Innovation Awards
February 11, 2025 This year’s winning projects use technology to bridge arts and wellness.
Two Teams Awarded 2023 Pabst Steinmetz Foundation Arts and Wellness Innovation Awards
January 31, 2024 Two projects focused on collaboration within diverse communities have been named winners of the 2023 Pabst Steinmetz Foundation Arts and Wellness Innovation Awards. The project teams comprising UCF researchers and community partners were granted $25,000 to help fund their respective initiatives.
UCF Researchers Pave the Way to Better Understand and Treat PTSD
June 30, 2023 In honor of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month, here are efforts focused on helping those affected by this condition.
Theatre UCF and College of Nursing Bring Joy to Children in Hospitals
February 14, 2023 Students from Theatre UCF and the College of Nursing will perform face-to-face at children’s hospitals this spring for the first time since COVID-19.
Past Projects
Scientific Proof of Music Therapy’s Impact on Alzheimer’s Disease (2024)
This research, in collaboration with UCF’s Lake Nona Medical Center, aims to investigate the effects of music therapy on individuals with Alzheimer’s disease by analyzing molecular changes in salivary exosomes. Exosomes reflect brain health, allowing the study of biomarkers like serotonin, dopamine, amyloid-beta, and tau proteins to understand music therapy’s impact on mood, memory, anxiety, and neurodegeneration. Led by UCF School of Performing Arts Professor Ayako Yonetani, the project will utilize live classical music, leveraging familiar, emotionally significant compositions to enhance therapeutic responses.
Immerse, Rehearse, Perform: An Innovative VR Experience for Overcoming Stage Fright (2024)
This project, developed by the CREATE team at UCF, aims to address performance anxiety — specifically public speaking anxiety — in schools. Utilizing immersive virtual reality (VR) technology, the initiative enables users to practice public speaking in a virtual classroom environment. The primary focus is on secondary and high school students, but the VR experience can be beneficial for anyone preparing for public speaking, including professionals such as ministers, motivational speakers, singers and individuals preparing for presentations.
Pegasus PlayLab: Building a Shared Home (2023)
Pegasus PlayLab: Building a Shared Home (2023)UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab is an annual festival dedicated to developing plays by emerging playwrights for performance at Theatre UCF. Building on this model, Theater artists with and without disabilities will have the opportunity to submit works in progress with the theme of “Unleashing Potential” to be developed during a week-long series of workshops and performed at UCF in early Summer 2024 as part of Pegasus PlayLab. Furthering the project, UCF’s School of Performing Arts and the College of Community Innovation and Education partnered with Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts) to connect artists nationally. Project facilitators will bring the previous processes and discoveries to the New London Barn Playhouse in New Hampshire. The Barn Playhouse has partnered with their local school district’s Student Support Services to create theatrical experiences for students with disabilities in their community.
LIMBITLESS JOURNEY: ALS Games for Health Creative Jam (2023)
LIMBITLESS JOURNEY: ALS Games for Health Creative Jam (2023)The LIMBITLESS JOURNEY: ALS Games for Health Creative Jam initiative aims to harness the power of a custom-designed video game and game controller, which utilizes muscle flex in the temporalis muscles, to enhance the lives of individuals living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In conjunction with the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, participants will be invited to design mini-games that align with the training objectives guided by the medical staff. A panel of judges of potential users and Mayo Clinic medical staff will evaluate the creations.
Pegasus PlayLab: Building a Shared Home (2022)
UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab is an annual festival dedicated to developing plays by emerging playwrights for performance at Theatre UCF. Building on this model, UCF’s School of Performing Arts and the College of Community Innovation and Education partnered with Best Buddies of Florida to offer Pegasus PlayLab to young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their neurotypical peers. Participants will collaborate in the development of the festival’s first devised play, Building a Shared Home, created around the theme of “home,” based on the group’s creative ideas and experiences.
Shifting STEM Perception: A Community Approach to Increasing STEM Participation and Persistence in Low-income, BIPOC Communities (2022)
Building on the work of the Orlando Science Center, this project seeks to shift perspectives of STEM for youth and families in an Orlando neighborhood to create pathways for STEM learning and careers. The project team will develop activities and presentations held at community events using the arts to make learning about STEM relatable and engaging. The School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD) will create these presentations. UCF’s Ginsburg Center for Inclusion and Community Engagement Office of Diversity Education and Training will train presenters to ensure inclusivity.
Mind Matters: Building Social-Emotional Resiliency for High School Students Through Theater (2021)
Mind Matters: Building Social-Emotional Resiliency for High School Students Through Theater (2021)Mind Matters builds upon Act Out Justice, a youth theatre for social change program created through a partnership with the Orlando Repertory Theatre. The project brings together researchers in the School of Performing Arts and the Department of Psychology to create theatre programming that supports high school students’ mental and socio-emotional health through the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers and community partners aimed to conduct listening sessions with high school theatre teachers, create new short plays about mental health, develop curriculum to support the plays and launch an open-source website featuring the project curriculum, resources and a published anthology of plays.
Strengthening Hospital Nurses’ Mental Health Resilience Through a Peer Support Training Program Using Comic Testimonials (2021)
Strengthening Hospital Nurses’ Mental Health Resilience Through a Peer Support Training Program Using Comic Testimonials (2021)This project brings together Department of Writing and Rhetoric and College of Nursing faculty to enhance UCF RESTORES’ healthcare worker peer support training program, REACT, through comic testimonials produced by hospital nurses. Drawing on the graphic medicine and comic therapy movements, the project aims to support mental wellness in nurses navigating stressful work conditions. The project involves three steps: a series of workshops to train area hospital nurses in creating autographical comics about their experiences, adaptation of the REACT workshop materials for acute care nurses and incorporating the autobiographical comics into workshop’s case scenarios and using the comics in cultural competency training for mental health specialists who would assist nurses with more severe mental health stress and trauma.
Advocating for Aphasia: Using the Performing Arts to Create a Conscious Community (2020)
Advocating for Aphasia: Using the Performing Arts to Create a Conscious Community (2020)Advocating for Aphasia brought together the School of Performing Arts, the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and the Department of Psychology to empower people with aphasia, a condition characterized by a reduced ability to speak, understand, read and write. The project aimed to empower people with aphasia to develop self-advocacy through sharing their stories. These stories were compiled into an educational video to better educate and improve interactions with first responders, who may have trouble understanding people with aphasia.
Fables versus Urban Legends: Storytelling about Vaccines at the Intersection of Ethnography and Epidemiology (2020)
Fables versus Urban Legends: Storytelling about Vaccines at the Intersection of Ethnography and Epidemiology (2020)Building on the ongoing success of the 2018 Positive Parenting Fables project, Fables versus Urban Legends united researchers from the College of Arts and Humanities, College of Nursing and College of Sciences to educate new parents about the importance of timely infant vaccinations. Upon discovering that different ethnolinguistic groups express starkly different concerns regarding vaccines, the researchers are creating research-informed, multilingual, animated fables to counter misapprehensions and promote improved understanding in public health.
Project Xavier Hands-free Training Game (2019)
Project Xavier Hands-free Training Game (2019)Project Xavier brought together UCF artists, game designers and engineers, as well as the Mayo Clinic of Jacksonville, to provide mobility solutions for a population with limited or no mobility. With EMG sensors placed on the side of the forehead, patients were able to control a powered wheelchair. Funding for the project allowed the research team to gamify a training instrument that helps patients become more proficient at controlling the device. Preliminary clinical trials led to improvements in the engineering of the controller. These changes will be implemented when the game is presented to patients in the near future.
Creative Approaches to Combat HIV Stigma and Discrimination from Health Providers (2019)
Creative Approaches to Combat HIV Stigma and Discrimination from Health Providers brought together researchers from the College of Nursing and College of Arts and Humanities, along with the Southern HIV and Alcohol Research Consortium, Central Florida HIV service providers and people living with HIV, to collect and analyze data about stigmatizing interactions between HIV care providers and patients. Using findings from interviews and focus groups, they are producing short, scenario-based videos and comics that quickly and impactfully illustrate the forms that stigma can take in provider-client communication, the impact of stigma on patients and alternatives to stigmatizing language. With guidance from the partner organizations, these materials will be incorporated in education and training for UCF students and area physicians/providers.
The Arts and Aging: An Interdisciplinary and Intergenerational Initiative (2018)
The Arts and Aging: An Interdisciplinary and Intergenerational Initiative (2018)As Central Florida’s population ages, new initiatives are needed to make sure elderly residents are happy and healthy. The Arts and Aging brought together the College of Arts and Humanities, College of Medicine and the Atlantic Center for the Arts to demonstrate how the literary and performing arts can have a positive impact on elderly well-being. The project incorporated the ACA’s Creative Caregiving program into the Big Read, a nationwide program that encourages reading for pleasure. Theatre students taking the course “Health & Wellness for the Performing Arts” worked with caregivers and their care partners at the ACA’s Harris House.
“Positive Parenting” Fables (2018)
“Positive Parenting” Fables (2018)In this project, the Modern Languages and Literatures Department partnered with the College of Sciences and the School of Visual Arts and Design to support new mothers in the postpartum recovery period. To combat the stress and confusion that this period of time often brings, researchers created multilingual, award-winning “Positive Parenting” animations that use memorable fictions and fables to present the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s seven tips for parenting infants from birth to year one.