Candle USC

What Candle USC does

USC CANDLE (Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education) is an academic research center founded in 2019 and housed within the University of Southern California's Brain and Creativity Institute and Rossier School of Education. The center applies developmental social-affective neuroscience to study how adolescents build meaning, with proprietary research methodologies combining fMRI neuroimaging, psychophysiological recording, and qualitative interviews across a sample of 1,815 directly studied students. Its core intellectual outputs include the Transcendent Thinking Framework, four transdisciplinary research clusters, and 34 peer-reviewed publications generating 7,090 academic citations.

The center's product surface centers on the Innovation Lab, which houses the COLABS (Collaborative Learning and Action-Based Communities) program, the Summer Design Sprint, and standalone professional learning workshops for educators. These programs translate neuroscience findings into actionable classroom strategies for middle and high school educators, school administrators, and education policy-makers, with stated reach of 186,540 educators and learners since 2019 and 175,000+ educators trained worldwide. The Innovation Lab was launched in 2025 with a two-year, $2.1 million grant from the Bezos Family Foundation.

USC CANDLE operates as a grant-funded, university-affiliated research center rather than a commercial entity. Revenue derives primarily from foundation grants (Bezos, Spencer, Jacobs, Templeton, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Annenberg, Mellon, Raikes, Battelle) and government awards (NICHD, DARPA, Army Research Lab), supplemented by philanthropic donations routed through USC Advancement Gift Services. Programs are offered free to participants with travel, lodging, and honoraria covered. The center has 11–12 core research and leadership staff led by founding director Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, holder of the Fahmy and Donna Attallah Chair in Humanistic Psychology and an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Name

Candle USC

Legal name

USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education

Website

https://candle.usc.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

USC CANDLE is a USC-affiliated academic research center that applies developmental social-affective neuroscience to transform adolescent education. It delivers the Innovation Lab, COLABS communities, and Design Sprints for secondary educators, administrators, and policy-makers, funded primarily by foundation grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Research Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Comprehensive Doctoral Research Universities (Multi-Disciplinary) (EDAHABAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Social Sciences & Public Policy Research Universities (EDAHABAD)

Keywords

• Developmental neuroscience research
• Educator professional development
• Adolescent learning science
• Education research center
• Social-emotional learning

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation and Grant Funding: USC CANDLE operates as an academic research center primarily funded through grants from foundations and government agencies. Major funding includes a $2.1M grant from the Bezos Family Foundation for the Innovation Lab, with additional support from organizations including Spencer Foundation, Jacobs Foundation, and Templeton Foundation.
2. Philanthropic Donations: The organization accepts donations through USC Advancement Gift Services for the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education.
3. Professional Learning Programs: Science-informed professional learning programming for educators focused on educator wellness and transcendent thinking strategies.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

USC CANDLE operates as an academic research center that runs the Innovation Lab, COLABS collaborative learning communities, and Summer Design Sprints to translate developmental social-affective neuroscience into classroom practice for middle and high school educators and their administrators. It also conducts four transdisciplinary research clusters and produces evidence-based policy resources to inform secondary education reform.

Product overview

USC CANDLE is an academic research center (not a commercial technology product company) that operates as a platform of interconnected programs aimed at transforming adolescent education through developmental neuroscience. The core offerings include the USC CANDLE Innovation Lab, which houses the COLABS (collaborative communities) and Professional Learning Programs; the Summer Design Sprint for educator teams; and Research Clusters covering transcendent thinking, teaching/learning processes, secondary education, and methodological innovations. These programs work together to bridge developmental neuroscience with real-world educational practice, policy, and research dissemination.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• COLABS: Collaborative Communities and Learning and Action-Based Communities - cohorts of collaborative learning and action-based communities where teachers, researchers and youth co-develop strategies grounded in science to implement in real-world classrooms.
• Innovation Lab

Products and services

• USC CANDLE Innovation Lab A program that integrates developmental neuroscience with pedagogical innovation, bringing together researchers, educators, administrators, and students in collaborative settings to explore how adolescent brain development can revolutionize teaching methods.
• COLABS (Collaborative Learning and Action-Based Communities) Collaborative communities where teachers, researchers, and youth co-develop strategies grounded in science to implement in real-world classrooms; translates adolescent neuroscience into actionable classroom strategies through professional learning workshops.
• Summer Design Sprint A 5-day in-person design sprint at USC in Los Angeles where teams of middle and high school educators translate adolescent neuroscience into classroom practice, with travel, lodging, and honoraria covered.
• Research Clusters Four transdisciplinary research clusters focusing on: (1) Adolescents' Development of Transcendent Thinking, (2) Social, Emotional and Cultural Processes of Teaching and Learning, (3) Advancing Developmentally Focused Secondary Education, and (4) Theoretical and Methodological Innovations in Adolescent Development Research.
• Professional Learning Programs
• Strategic Plan Resources

Quantifiable outcome

• 186,540 educators and learners reached since 2019
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Aspen InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMary Helen Immordino-Yang served as a distinguished scientist on the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, advancing policy frameworks for education.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Harvard Graduate School of Education: Harvard GSE houses the Center for Mind, Brain, and Education and other research-practice centers that intersect with CANDLE's mission. It is a broader incumbent institution in education research and practitioner translation, with overlapping faculty and methodology.

Direct peers

• CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning): CASEL is the leading SEL framework and school implementation organization, advancing research-based SEL through district partnerships, policy, and educator resources. Like CANDLE, it sits at the intersection of developmental science, educator professional learning, and education policy.
• Stanford PERTS (Project for Education Research That Scales): Stanford PERTS conducts applied education research and builds scalable tools for schools to improve learning mindsets and experiences. It shares CANDLE's orientation toward research-practice integration and large-scale educator engagement.
• Turnaround for Children: Turnaround translates developmental science and brain research into tools, coaching, and systems for high-need schools and districts. Like CANDLE, it builds practitioner-facing programs grounded in neuroscience research, targeting educator practice change in service of student developmental outcomes.
• Project Zero (Harvard Graduate School of Education): Project Zero is a long-standing Harvard-based research center studying learning, cognition, and meaning-making, with deep educator-facing programs. CANDLE team member Emily Gonzalez previously worked there. Both centers research how people build meaning and translate that into frameworks for educators.
• Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning: CTTL is an independent nonprofit that translates cognitive neuroscience research into K-12 classroom practice, including teacher fellowships, professional development, and brain-informed pedagogy. It mirrors CANDLE's core thesis of bridging neuroscience research and teaching practice with both research and applied programming.
• UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent: UCLA's Center for the Developing Adolescent conducts research on adolescent brain development and translates it into resources for educators, parents, and policymakers. It shares CANDLE's focus on adolescent developmental neuroscience and practitioner translation.
• Greater Good in Education (UC Berkeley): Greater Good in Education distills social-emotional learning and mindfulness research into free resources for K-12 educators. It mirrors CANDLE's model of converting developmental and social science research into practitioner-ready classroom tools and frameworks.
• Mindset Works: Mindset Works commercializes growth mindset research for K-12 schools through programs, teacher training, and resources. It represents the more commercialized version of CANDLE's research-to-practice translation model, serving similar educator and district customers.
• Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence: Yale's CEI conducts emotion research and translates it into school programs like RULER, serving educators and administrators to build social-emotional learning. It is a close analog in combining emotion/neuroscience research with practitioner-facing K-12 programs and policy engagement.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CandleUsc
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCOIDZHj2EuBYP3fUPFLgr-g?view_as=subscriber
• Facebookfacebook.com/CandleUSC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/candleusc
• Instagraminstagram.com/candleusc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Candle USC