In December 2012, the John Templeton Foundation awarded Heuman a two-year fellowship in its funding competition “Breaking New Ground in Science and Religion.” In collaboration with the Buddhist magazine Tricycle, Heuman initiated a conversation at a level accessible to the general public between Buddhists and leading modern thinkers across the humanities and social sciences who work on the nature of religion and science. The purpose of the fellowship was to:

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• Explore ways in which scholarship from fields like philosophy, anthropology, sociology, history of science, history of religion, science studies, literary studies, and linguistics interfaces with Buddhist theory and practice.
   

• Introduce a Buddhist voice into the discourse on religion and science in the humanities and social sciences that has so far been carried out mostly from a theistic and Western perspective.
   

• Consider how the fruits of such dialogue might advance research in contemplative science.
   

• Educate Western convert Buddhists about how scholarly research on religion and science in their own tradition can offer them new ways of thinking about their spiritual experience.