The winners of the Parapsychological Association's 2019 Charles Honorton Integrative Contributions Award are Caroline Watt & Jim Kennedy. This annual award honors members who have made significant research contributions that integrate parapsychology and mainstream science, and thereby has advanced the discipline of parapsychology. This award recognizes Watt & Kennedy's important work in establishing the Koestler Parapsychology Unit Study Registry to encourage pre-registration as a standard practice.

Professor Caroline Watt began her career in parapsychology in 1986, under the mentorship of the Koestler Professor Robert Morris at the University of Edinburgh. Her main interests are in ESP research and methodological issues in parapsychology. Her collaboration with Jim Kennedy began in 2012 when they both recognized the need for a study registry and began discussing possible logistics and division of labor. They opened the KPU Study Registry in late 2012, just as the “methodological revolution” in psychology erupted in full force. In 2016 she became the second holder of the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology at the University.

Jim Kennedy began his professional career working at the Institute for Parapsychology from 1974 to 1979. In the 1980s he changed careers and did environmental work. In 1990 he changed careers again and began working in medical research, while also devoting a significant amount of his free time to research and writing related to parapsychology. After he retired in 2011, he devoted greater time to parapsychological work—particularly to transferring his methodological experience with regulated clinical trials to parapsychological and psychological research.

Launched in 2012, the Koestler Parapsychology Unit Study Registry was, to our knowledge, the first study registry outside of medical research to have specified required information for study registrations, a review process to verify compliance and clarity, and irreversibly public registrations. Most study registration options available to psychological researchers still do not have all of these basic practices that are standard for registries for medical research. In addition to facilitating higher methodological standards in parapsychology, the Registry is another example of parapsychological work that has relevance for the wider scientific community.

More information about the PA's annual awards can be found at: http://www.parapsych.org/section/27/awards.aspx