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For decades, attempts to understand Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) have surged

with curiosity and urgency, but rarely with consistency, methodological rigor, or institutional

support. The field has been fragmented from the start: split between ad hoc investigations,

amateur analysis, speculative claims, and disconnected pockets of serious academic interest.

 

Efforts that aimed to observe and measure the phenomena often lacked scientific infrastructure,

while humanistic and sociocultural inquiries focused more on meaning than underlying

mechanism. The target itself has shifted—“UFOs,” now “UAP”—without broad consensus on

definition, scope, or approach. What’s been missing is not just research, but a system: one that

bridges disciplines, supports credible inquiry, and enables shared knowledge to emerge over

time.

 

The Society for UAP Studies (SUAPS) was created to help build that system. At the heart of our

mission is a foundational principle: that UAP studies deserve the same procedural clarity,

institutional stewardship, and epistemic seriousness we expect in any field of structured inquiry,

across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

 

To make that possible, we’ve built AURA/UPWARD: a two-part framework for governing,

supporting, and integrating credible research into UAPs—whatever their ultimate nature may

prove to be.

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What Is AURA?

AURA (Accelerated UAP Research & Analysis) is SUAPS’s primary system for structuring how

UAP research is reviewed, supported, and executed. It’s not just a grant mechanism or peer

review board. It’s a full lifecycle governance model designed to ensure that every accepted

project—regardless of scope or discipline—moves through a clear, credible pathway from idea

to outcome.

 

Why such structure? Because credibility in the UAP domain demands it.

 

Historically, UAP research has lacked integration with broader scientific and scholarly norms.

Anecdotal findings, fragmented efforts, and minimal documentation have undermined the field’s

standing with institutions, funders, and the public. SUAPS embraces a prescriptive, phase-

based model not to constrain creativity, but to provide the operational backbone needed to

professionalize a historically stigmatized domain.

 

AURA draws from proven lifecycle models like ESA’s ECSS standards, adapting them to the

interdisciplinary realities of UAP research. Every project is assigned a Research Readiness

Level (RRL) from 1 to 9, which determines how it is reviewed, resourced, and managed across

a seven-phase structure.

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Three core principles guide AURA’s design:

● Field Legitimacy: Lifecycle discipline provides the clarity, reproducibility, and

accountability necessary for long-term trust and visibility.

● Speculation–Stringency Balance: The more novel or unconventional a proposal, the

more structured its path must be. Rigor scales with risk.

● Tailored Flexibility: While the system is prescriptive, it allows documented

customizations per project—supporting innovation without sacrificing oversight.

 

In short: the more unconventional or high-risk a project is, the more structured its path becomes.

This balance between credibility and creative freedom is what makes AURA different. It is

designed not to constrain inquiry, but to clarify its path.

 

What Is UPWARD?

If AURA is how individual projects are run, UPWARD (Unified Program for Weaving Anomaly

Research & Discovery) is how their insights are connected.

 

UPWARD is SUAPS’s synthesis layer. It ensures research doesn’t stay siloed. Instead, it

gathers what individual projects produce and weaves them into a broader, evolving

understanding of UAP.

 

UPWARD supports:

● The Institutional Knowledge Map (IKM) that links findings across domains

● Thematic analysis and theory-building that cut across disciplines

● Cross-project collaboration and community convening

● Integration into public education, citizen science, and policy engagement

 

It also offers researchers an opportunity to contribute to second-order insight—participating not

just in their own work, but in shaping the shared knowledge landscape of UAP science.

 

What AURA/UPWARD Is Not

● It’s not a one-off grant program.

● It’s not limited to one methodology, discipline, or worldview.

● It’s not a top-down control mechanism.

● It’s not speculative-first—structure scales with credibility.

 

Instead, AURA/UPWARD is a durable infrastructure: a system built to support thoughtful,

cumulative, and publicly meaningful UAP research over time.

 

Why It Matters

AURA gives UAP research the institutional tools it needs to mature: lifecycle discipline,

documentation standards, performance milestones, and ethical review. It aligns SUAPS with the

norms of globally respected science bodies, and gives funders, partners, and policymakers

confidence in the work being done.

 

UPWARD ensures that research doesn’t just produce isolated findings, but contributes to

something larger: a shared, dynamic, and navigable knowledge base about one of the most

persistent anomalies of our time.

 

Together, AURA and UPWARD offer more than structure. They offer stewardship.

 

Our Vision

We see a future where:

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● Citizen scientists, professional researchers, and trained theorists contribute to a unified

research commons

● Funders and institutions support work that has transparency and integrity

● The public gains access and benefits from findings that are cumulative, interpretable,

and transformative

 

With AURA/UPWARD, SUAPS isn’t just enabling projects, we’re building the nervous system

of UAP research for the next decade.

 

We invite you researchers, collaborators, funders, and the public to learn how this system

works, engage with its process, and help shape the future of structured anomaly research.

This isn’t just a system. It’s a commitment to clarity, to inquiry, and to the long-term credibility of

this field.

 

To learn more or to join this effort, visit: https://www.societyforuapstudies.org/aura-upward

 

Interested researchers should submit proposals adhering to the Society's requirements by the

close of the business day, 1 October 2025: https://www.societyforuapstudies.org/rfp-submissions

 

Let’s build that future together.