Social Media Artistic tRaining in Teenagers (SMART)

Blog of the HorizonEurope funded project SMART (Grant Agreement ID: 101063319)

TIMELINE & PROGRESSION

  • December 2025 (M32)

    • This is the new last month of the MSCA-funded period: the fellow, LV, has found an interesting non-academic position that can not wait for her any longer, so an early termination has been requested and approved by the EU Commission and the host institution (UCM).
    • Updated versions of documents and deliverables (i.e., Data Management Plan, Career Development Plan, Communication Dissemination & Exploitation Plan, Quality Assurance Plan) have been prepared, describing what has been done up until M32, as well as what are our future plans for the project’s data and results.
    • SMART Data Analyses are expected to continue during the first months of the new year, and the scientific team will aim at submitting a results manuscript during late Spring / early Summer 2026.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: although the scientific team would like to keep updating the project’s website regarding major news, publications, and other communication and dissemination activities in which the team participates and the SMART project is presented, these updates will be more infrequent due to the career change that the fellow will expierence from January 2026 onwards.

  • November 2025 (M31)

    • Continuation of an almost final analysis of behavioral data.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: Elisa García-Mingo and Lucía Vaquero have prepared and submitted a Comment Article to Humanities and Social Sciences Communications journal, reflecting about the methodological, theoretical and logistic constraints encountered during the implementation of SMART and other internet-based research projects aiming to study digital consequences in youth from a social justice angle, and calling for a change in the scientific and academic fields to improve our research practice.

  • October 2025 (M30)

  • September 2025 (M29)

    • Continuation of the follow-up period and final evaluation for some Control participants.
    • Dataset organization tasks continuation, including discussions and drafting of a data analysis plan.
    • The Scientific Team works on reports for the GRAMMY Museum Foundation and the NYC Department of Education IRB.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: the protocol paper gets officially published in Open Access, and shared online on the project’s, the fellow’s and MARL’s social media, with very insightful reception.

  • August 2025 (M28)

    Image by Martin de Arriba (obtained at Pexels.com)

  • July 2025 (M27)

    • Control group: Continuation of the follow-up period & Final Evaluation completion by some Control participants.
    • Continuation of dataset organization.
    • Career Development: the fellow discusses with her supervisors career options in education/health/science policy and public health sectors.
    • MSCA budget for the remaining period of the project gets approved by the European Commission after reviewing the SMART’s interim report.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: revisions and reviewers’ comments for the protocol paper manuscript arrive –with very few and minor changes proposed, and positive overall impression of the study. Scientific, TA and Working teams prepared a revised version of the manuscript and submitted it to the European Journal of Psychotraumatology. Fingers crossed now!

  • June 2025 (M26)

    • Continuation of the follow-up period of Control participants.
    • Dataset organization tasks continuation.
    • The fellow, her supervisors at NYU and UCM, and the administrative team from the host university (UCM) finish preparing and submit to the European Cpommision the Interim Report, containing a summary of the activities performed during the first 24 months of the project (Outgoing Phase of the MSCA-funded period), and justifying any modifications in the original plan.
    • The fellow starts collaborating more actively in the DIVISAR project -focused on the study of the digitalization of sexual violence in apps and social media- led by Prof. Elisa Garcia Mingo at UCM.

  • May 2025 (M25)

    • LV starts the Returning Phase of the MSCA-PF at the University Complutense of Madrid, under the supervision of Prof. Elisa Garcia Mingo!
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: to celebrate the Outgoing Phase and the end of the intervention part of the project, LV and the NYU team organized and carried out the SMART Exhibition.

  • April 2025 (M24)

    • The 2024-25 intervention groups (both VIS and MUS groups from both participating high-schools) finish the intervention sessions and complete the POST-intervention testing.
    • Control group [CON] gets recruited, completes the BASELINE evaluation, and starts their 12-week follow-up period.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]:
      • Protocol paper-manuscript continues to be ‘Under Review’
      • LV participates in the Nunchi Health Spring Summit 2025 (the event was postponed from March to the beginning of April).

  • March 2025 (M23)

    • 2024-25 intervention groups will complete their intervention period during this month.
    • Recruitment efforts to find matched Control participants start!
    • [Communication & Dissemination]:
      • SMART’s protocol paper is submitted!
      • LV’s article from a non-SMART related project (around the study of cancer-effects on brain structure and cognition in lung cancer patients) gets published in the journal Neurology.
      • In addition, LV will participate in the Nunchi Health Spring Summit 2025 at the end of the month.

    Image by Pavel Danilyuk (obtained at Pexels)

  • February 2025 (M22)

    • Interventions at both participating high schools continue: students are now working on their collaborative projects.
    • NYU’s IRB protocol gets modified in order to recruit potential control participants from lab’s database.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: LV gets invited as a panelist at the Nunchi Health Spring Summit 2025 (the event will take place in March). Furthermore, the protocol manuscript is getting finished and will be submitted soon!

  • January 2025 (M21)

    • Interventions at both participating high schools continue: presentations of the first (individual) projects take place in both photography [VIS] and music [MUS] groups.
    • LV continues her participation as an expert in the EPHA-led focus group to define Better/Positive Mental Health Indicators.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: LV’s articles from non-SMART related projects in which she collaborates get published (one in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, and the other in Neuro-oncology Advances).

  • December 2024 (M20)

    • Despite unforeseen dealys and challenges, SMART Visual-arts and Music interventions start at Fort Hamilton High School! Our TAs, Sean Sirota,JL Marlor and Chris McIntyre have started introducing basic theoretical concepts, and we have started performing the corresponding social media activities following the program and trying to promote group cohesion.
    • LV finishes teaching Psychology of Music at NYU, following the end of the semester.

    Image by Jack Redgate (obtained at Pexels)

  • November 2024 (M19)

  • October 2024 (M18)

    • Pre-intervention evaluations start at Ft. Hamilton HS.
    • A new TA for the Visual-Arts interventions is added to the team: welcome to SMART, Sean Sirota! Sean is an incredible photographer with extensive experience teaching story-telling through photography & visual-arts in youth around NYC.
    • LV starts participating as an expert in the EPHA-led focus group to define Better/Positive Mental Health Indicators.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: LV and Prof. Pablo Ripollés (as well as a few other member from the Ripolles Lab) are actively collaborating with the organization Sounds of Saving, preparing music-for-wellness outreach materials and future events.

  • September 2024 (M17)

    Image by Cottonbro (obtained at Pexels)

  • August 2024 (M16)

    • SMART’s protocol with the latest modifications and additions to the team gets re-approved by the NYC Department of Education IRB.
    • Preparation of the latest version of intervention materials to apply during the school year 2024/2025. This Fall 2024 semester, SMART will be applied during school hours at Fort Hamilton HS and as an after-school activity at Baruch College Campus HS.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: preparation of some dissemination and outreach opportunities that will be published in September.
    • In line with the Career Development Plan prepared with the different MSCA supervisors, LV will be expanding her teaching experience during the Fall2024 semester by teaching the course ‘Psychology of Music‘ at NYU. Preparation for this course has been performed during this month as well.

  • July 2024 (M15)

    • Completion of secondment at MPIEA: the MSCA fellow spent the month meeting with researchers from different departments at MPIEA, learning about their projects and visiting their research spaces, such as the very unique ArtLab, and attending some experimental sessions to learn more about the research carried out in this pioneer center.
    • After contacting many potential high schools in the NYC area to extend the participating centers involved in the project, a new agreement has been reached to start implementing the project at Baruch College Campus High School.
    • Modifications in the IRB protocols to include our new TA –Lorena Ostia, an amazing sustainable visual artist- and our new research site: NYU has been re-approved; DoE has been sent for review and re-approval.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: during her time at the MPIEA, LV had the chance to present and discuss the SMART project twice – for the Department of Music and for the Musical Development Unit.

  • June 2024 (M14)

  • May 2024 (M13)

    • End of SMART’s first group of music composition/edition interventions: students presented their final (collaborative) projects during week 12, showing great creativity and evindenced the learning process they have completed during these 3 months.
    • Weekly measures acquired from this first group of participants are started to be analyzed (word cloud depicted below belongs to this data).
    • SMART welcomes the first teaching artist in charge of the photography / visual-arts interventions: Lorena Ostia, an amazing visual artist with extensive experience in teaching these materials and art, will be joining the team during Fall 2024.
    • The SMART team starts contacting public high schools in Manhattan (NYC) in hopes to implement our interventions in another high school, in addition to our current partner, Fort Hamilton HS.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: the SMART project is presented to and discussed with the nonprofit organization Sounds of Saving.

  • April 2024 (M12)

    • The first interviews to find Teaching Artists to implement the digital visual-arts / photography intervention during the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 have started.
    • [Communication & Dissemination]: the MSCA fellow presented the SMART project at NYU’s Center of Health and Rehabilitation Research – CoHRR Spring 2024 Showcase.
    • While data acquisition continues for the first recruited group, the MSCA fellow alternates her time helping out in recent and established collaborations, both with NYU- (in a project around musical improvisation in musical therapy for stroke patients), and Spanish-based researchers, in projects around: Alzheimer Disease characterization in Down Syndrome (following previous investigations, UCM), diagnostic biomarkers of cognitive impairment in lung cancer patients (following a well-established line of work, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-Institut Català d’Oncologia-IDIBELL), and structural and behavioral underpinnings of primary progressive aphasia (University of Barcelona).

  • March 2024 (M11)

    • Data collection is ongoing for the first active group (they are completing the music composition program) at Ft. Hamilton HS: at an empirical, observational level, we have noticed that students’ attitudes towards the intervention and its activities have changed, becoming more positive and motivating.
    • SMART Consortium Meeting was held on March 25th, to discuss the progression of the study and plans to improve implementation moving forward.
    • Planification of Academic Secondment of the MSCA fellow to the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics for summer 2024.
    • The SMART team is seeking new Teaching Artists for the Visual-Arts intervention, as well as new participating sites (high schools or other centers, for potentially carrying out our interventions as extra-curricular activities).

  • February 2024 (M10)

  • January 2024 (M9)

    • Complete pilots replicating the actual experimental sessions, and final troubleshooting for behavioral tasks.
    • Completion of NY DOE IRB’s security clearance procedures for the SMART team (researchers and TAs).
    • Start of recruitment: Q&A session with the first potential group of participants and their families, distribution of consent forms.
    • Change of PI from Beneficiary Institution (MSCA administrative procedure): due to unforeseen circumstances, UCM’s supervisor of the SMART project had to be replaced. Please, welcome our new PI and team member, Elisa García Mingo!

  • December 2023 (M8)

    • Final pilot testing of behavioral and neuroimaging tasks and protocols. Setting up the automatic correction of neuropsychological and mental-health related tests.
    • Funding applications: submissions of applications to NYU’s Postdoctoral Travel Award Program (to attend the Neuroscience & Music VIII) and Center for Brain Imaging’s Token Funds (for covering the MRI sessions of the first group of participants). LV is awarded with $700 within NYU’s Postdoctoral Travel Award Program.

    Image by Monicore (obtained at Pexels)

  • November 2023 (M7)

    • SMART’s experimental protocol gets ethics approval by New York Department of Education IRB.
    • Creation of the H- Requirement-No.1 and H- Requirement-No.2 documents, and submission to the EU’s Funding & Tenders portal.
    • Survey implementation on Qualtrics, programming and final modification and test of the behavioral experimental tasks on the experimental laptops.
    • [Communication & Dissemination] publication of outreacharticle related to the SMART project.
    • Funding applications: SMART gets selected for funding within the 36th edition of the Grant Program for Music Research, awarded by the GRAMMY Museum Foundation.

  • October 2023 (M6)

    • SMART’s working team (ACO + DCTV + NYU team) complete the New York Department of Education (DoE) IRB ethics in research-related training.
    • Preparation of experimental materials (continuation).
    • Response to second review by the New York DoE IRB.
    • Creation of the Career Development Plan and modification of the Data Management Plan, and submission to the EU’s Funding & Tenders portal.
    • [Communication & Dissemination] interviews at various Spanish radio stations.
    • Funding applications: support lab PI’s grant applications.

  • September 2023 (M5)

    • SMART’s working team (ACO + DCTV + NYU team): intervention curriculum task force – wrapping up.
    • Testing of experimental tasks.
    • [Communication & Dissemination] members of the scientific consortium have paticipated in diverse outreach activities (not specifically SMART-project focused, but related to the music neuroscience field), and proposed a workshop to present at the Neuroscience & Music VIII 2024 conference.

    Image by Terrance Barksdale (obtained at Pexels)

  • August 2023 (M4)

    • SMART’s working team (ACO + DCTV + NYU team): intervention curriculum task force (continuation).
    • Response to first review by the New York Department of Education IRB.
    • [Communication & Dissemination] Set-up of SMART’s project Website and Social Media profiles.
    • Funding applications: (i) SMART project full-proposal submitted to the GRAMMY Research Grants, and (ii) MSCA fellow applies for NYU Postdoctoral Research and Professional Development Support Grants.

  • July 2023 (M3)

    • SMART’s working team (ACO + DCTV + NYU team): intervention curriculum task force.
    • Preparation of experimental materials.
    • Funding applications: SMART project is selected for full-proposal review within the GRAMMY Research Grants.

    Image by Karolina Grabowska (obtained at Pexels)

  • June 2023 (M2)

    • SMART’s protocol gets ethics approval by NYU’s IRB.
    • Submission of SMART protocol to Department of Education’s IRB (Ethics Committee).
    • [Communication & Dissemination] Participation on the V Lecture Series of Corpus Curiosum: Presentation of the SMART project.
    • Funding applications: Letter of Interest submitted to GRAMMY Research Grants.

  • May 2023 (M1)

    Image by Roberto Vivancos (obtained at Pexels)

    • Arrival of the MSCA fellow (LV) to New York City.
    • Enrollment process at NYU. Training in MRI protocols (Center for Brain Imaging – NYU).
    • Submission of SMART protocol to NYU’s IRB (Ethics Committee).
    • [Communication & Dissemination] Presentation of the Project at NYU-MARL.
    • Funding applications: MSCA fellow (LV) applies for the BBRF’s NARSAD Young Investigators Research Grant.