fqxi essay contest

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US$40,000 FQxI competition asks: "Is science broken?"

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, will award prizes for the best proposals for improving the way that science is done

Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi

image: The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, launches its $40,000 essay competition. view more 

Credit: Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI

Since its inception in 2006, the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI has awarded US$400,000 in prizes, in 10 essay competitions, to 191 winners, on topics ranging from the nature of time to how humanity should steer the future. This year’s competition asks: how could science be different? The total prize pot is $40,000.

“If parts of how we do science are broken then how can we fix them?” says FQxI’s scientific director and co-founder, Anthony Aguirre (University of California, Santa Cruz and author of Cosmological Koans: A Journey to the Heart of Physical Reality ).

“If parts of how we do science are broken then how can we fix them?” says Anthony Aguirre.

The competition is open to anyone . Past competitions have attracted entries from Nobel Laureates, for instance, and prizes have been awarded to school children and members of the public, alongside celebrated scientists and authors, such as, Carlo Rovelli (University of Aix-Marseilles and author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics ), Sabine Hossenfelder (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Answer to Life’s Biggest Questions ), Sean Carroll (Johns Hopkins University and author of The Biggest Ideas in Physics: Space, Time and Motion ) and George Ellis (University of Cape Town, co-author with Stephen Hawking of The Large-Scale Structure of Spacetime ). 

The prize pot of $40,000 will be split between winners with the best answers, written in the form of short essays re-imagining how science is done. Essays should be no more than 10 pages in length and entrants can submit their essays between February 28, 2023 and April 19, 2023. Upon acceptance, the essays will be displayed on FQxI's site , where people can vote and comment on the essays, and engage with the essay authors on the site’s forum. As in past competitions, the final winners will be chosen by an expert panel. “FQxI’s competitions have always been immensely popular because anyone can enter and engage with top scientists—and even Nobel Laureates,” says FQxI’s editor Zeeya Merali. 

Alternative Universes

“How could science be different?” is a question to which answers could come in several forms, says FQxI’s scientific programs director, David Sloan. Entrants may choose to address any of the aspects of scientific inquiry itself—experiments, analysis, modeling—or they could address, for instance, whether there is an alternative to the way science is taught in schools or the university research system. What would better systems look like and how would they operate? 

“Can you imagine all the ways in which how we do science and who gets to be a scientist could be different in our universe or another universe in the multiverse?” says Kavita Rajanna.

Entrants may even provide answers in the form of works of creative fiction that examine hypothetical historical timelines where the development of science took an alternative path in the past, or is radically reconceptualized in the future. “Can you imagine all the ways in which how we do science and who gets to be a scientist could be different in our universe or another universe in the multiverse?” says FQxI’s deputy director Kavita Rajanna. “What do you envision?”

Anonymous Twist

FQxI has run 10 essay competitions in the past, but this time there’s a twist: All entries will be anonymous, to ensure that judging—by either the public vote or the expert panel—is not in any way biased. “This is a part of our commitment to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion,” says Sloan. 

“Who knows? There may be a shock result,” says David Sloan.

No-one will have access to demographic information about authors—gender, sex, age, academic affiliation, celebrity status, or geographic location. The identities of entrants will only be unveiled after the winners have been chosen. “Now the contest is even more thrilling because everyone can be confident that their ideas will be judged—potentially against Nobel Laureates—on a truly level playing field,” says Sloan. “Who knows? There may be a shock result.”

Relaunching FQxI

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, is a science funding agency that has traditionally focused on supporting research into foundational questions in physics, cosmology and related fields. This year’s essay competition is part of the Institute’s relaunch and expansion. “FQxI is acknowledging with this relaunch that it’s not enough to just focus on funding groundbreaking science, but we must also rethink how science itself is done,” says Rajanna.

"It’s not enough to just focus on funding groundbreaking science, but we must also rethink how science itself is done,” says Kavita Rajanna.

With this in mind, FQxI is actively searching for partnerships to run new grant programs that will catalyze the next paradigm shifts in the foundations of science. The Institute, which currently boasts over 300 members, including four Nobel Laureates (Gerard ’t Hooft, Roger Penrose, Frank Wilczek and Anton Zeilinger) is also putting out its first open call for new members , who should be exceptional researchers. 

“We believe the way scientists do science can be more effective and the current structures that dictate how science is done need to be questioned,” adds Rajanna. “To do this, we need to consult with a diverse range of people about how to make science better.”

FQxI’s 2023 essay competition guidelines will be available here on February 14th: https://qspace.fqxi.org/competitions/introduction  

FQxI’s 2023 open call for nominations available here: https://fqxi.org/about-us/membership/  

FQxI’s 2023 essay competition, “How could be science be different?” is sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation. 

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of science, particularly new frontiers in physics and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources. Visit FQxI.org for more information.

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