My letter is very similar. However as I stated in my note if the criteria was lack of institutional affiliation, and the intent was to strictly limit participation based on that, I can only assume they would have communicated that to us.

In any case hey…..only two more years before we get another whack at it

Of course by then we will both be famous for solving the fundamental mysteries of the universe without academic or foundational support

(let me see where is that Baez crackpot index again. It was right here a minute ago.)

Cheers,

Elliot

That makes two of us in the rejected column so far, but the only process I was included in was as a recipient of the standard rejection notice sent to all the rejectees. Did they actually ask you questions about your proposal or something?

I hope others here who submitted proposals will share results. It would be interesting to see who else did, or did not, receive the dreaded message:

Thank you for your application to the Inaugural FQXi Request for Proposals. We received 172 excellent applications requesting a total of US$23M in grants, a figure some ten times larger than we are able to fund this time.

To limit the time spent by the research community writing ultimately unsuccessful full proposals, the review panel has now completed a careful assessment of these initial applications. It clearly had some difficult decisions to make, and I regret to inform you that the panel has declined to request a Full Proposal from you at this time.

While we are unable to provide detailed feedback on all uninvited proposals, common reasons for non-selection include lack of direct or focused relevance to the FQXi mission (e.g., too mainstream) and low potential impact per dollar (e.g., it was unclear that the FQXi grants would fund research that would otherwise not occur; or potential gains from the research were incommensurate with the funding requested.)

The good news is that there will be many future FQXi programs to which you can apply, including another RFP in 2008, as well as essay contests coming soon. We have therefore added your name to the FQXi mailing list to be notified of these opportunities as they arise. (Please notify Kirsten A. Hubbard, our Scientific Program Manager, at hubbard@fqxi.org, if you would prefer not to be on this list.)

Thank you again for your interest in FQXi, and the time spent on your Initial Proposal. Your efforts helped to establish that research into Foundational Questions is a fascinating and important goal for a wide variety of people and institutions.

Sincerely,

Kirsten A. Hubbard
Scientific Program Manager
Foundational Questions Institute

In any case, I’m glad I did it, and look forward to seeing what emerges from this process both in terms of what projects are funded and what the results of those projects are. I would not be reluctant to give this another shot in the future with the same groundrules.

Elliot

I knew the importance that Anthony would play, and Sean for the introduction of this article above. Why? Because of the “connection” Peter has made in the past.

That Sean might have held about taking a stance, on the templeton issue. So Peter and Sean would have been in agreement as far as I could tell, until, the answers about the role this funding might play, and who was backing it?

Had Anthony maintain some distance from such an association? I bet him and others were sleeping quite comfortably, while the work was yet to come:)

No money, and I continue to endeavor from a personal motivation of interest about science. If I had a proposal such as Sean’s about atheistic valuation, would it now seem important(?) with the dynamics being changed by one of their own( Peter)?

Anthony,

Oh, it wasn’t even close to badly mishandled–he was very diplomatic and logical about the whole thing.

I think wrote him a note:

Do you want to go to the dance with me?

And then I had check boxes (SNORT. yes, check boxes…if we had had email then I imagine I would have had embedded radio buttons…) for “yes”, “no”, and “maybe”.
I believe he checked “maybe”, and added a disclaimer, “I have already asked Michelle, so if she says yes, I will go with her, but I will still dance with you there.”

Hey, even in 6th grade we knew to keep our options open…

It has been fun to reconnect. I’ll be in touch.
Hope you & yours are well.

Tara

Hi! That is extremely amusing and it is nice to hear from/about you! Please drop me an email anytime, if you like.

Sean:

My precise recollection of these events is foggy, but I’m pretty sure that there was another girl involved and that, characteristically, I badly mishandled the whole situation…

All:

FYI, the first round of proposals was a great success and we are very excited about the proposals we got. While these are being processed, a goal over the next couple of months will be to develop the FQXi forum, which many here will hopefully find of interest.

Also, thanks to Doug, Belizean, Elliot, et al., for lots of interesting food-for-thought in connection with the support of ‘outsiders’ that have a real potential contribution to make to FQXy research.