Call for Applications. Templeton Independent Research Fellowship: The Power of Information

Transcription

1 Call for Applications Templeton Independent Research Fellowship: The Power of Information Closing date: Friday March

2 I. About Templeton World Charity Foundation Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. (TWCF) was established in 1996 to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to Big Questions of life and the universe, in areas of science, theology, philosophy, and human society. Sir John Templeton was interested in concepts that he referred to as invisible realities, including (but not limited to) such examples as love, infinity, creativity, gratitude, consciousness, and complexity. He established the Foundation to foster rigorous scholarship and broad communications on such diverse topics, as well as on the dialogue between science and religion, in order to stimulate humility, curiosity, and enthusiasm for new discoveries in invisble realities. This is reflected in the Foundation s motto: How little we know, how eager to learn. II. The Power of Information Phenomena in the world occur on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, and yet they are all too often studied and conceptualised completely independently of each other because of the absence of analytical categories that apply across these scales. Because of its applicability across a wide variety of contexts, the concept of information offers a promising pathway for comprehending both micro- and macro-level phenomena that is, phenomena from the quantum to the cosmological scales with a single scientific concept. Since 2013 TWCF has funded over a dozen research projects in internationally recognized institutions around the world, the goal of which has been to scientifically and philosophically explore the concept of information and its utility for understanding a wide variety of physical and biological processes. The purpose of the Templeton Independent Research Fellowship is to facilitate ongoing scientific research pertaining to the concept of information by exceptional early-career scholars who are likely to establish themselves as prominent researchers in their field in the future. TWCF is interested in supporting research in which information is central to the conceptual framework underlying the science. Because of this, TWCF will not fund projects in bioinformatics, information technology, data analysis, information handling, statistical inference, big data, or any other area in which information is used primarily as an operational concept rather than as a fundamental one. For examples of the kinds of projects that TWCF has previously supported, please visit the Foundation s website: templetonworldcharity.org. III. Level of support The maximum duration of each Fellowship is three years. The Fellowship will provide up to a total of US$110,000 of financial support per year for each fellow, tenable at any recognized university or research institution in the world. 1 The primary purpose of the Fellowship is to pay for the fellow s salary and fringe benefits. Fellows can also request funds for research-related expenses, including but not limited to conference or other travel, computational and/or experimental resources, or developing outreach materials for the dissemination of project-related findings. 1 Final confirmation of the Fellowship will be contingent upon the applicant successfully completing TWCF s compliance monitoring procedures, which includes a thorough budget review. 2

3 Due to internal restrictions, TWCF can only support institutional overhead or indirect costs that do not exceed 15% of the Fellowship s direct costs. For example, if the request for direct costs in the first year is US$90,000, TWCF s contribution to indirect or overheads expenses may not exceed US$13,500 for that year; the total request to TWCF would, in this example, be $103,500. The host institution must be prepared to cover any overhead or indirect costs that exceed 15% of direct costs. After awarding Fellowships to three exceptional scholars in the 2016 round, TWCF expects to award up to three Fellowships in this 2017 round, and up to three more in a 2018 round. Applicants who are unsuccessful in earlier rounds are welcome to reapply in later rounds, provided they still meet the eligibility criteria, their proposed research fits the focus described in Section II above, and their overall application is stronger than it was during the earlier rounds. IV. Eligibility criteria Fellows must hold a PhD by the time they begin their Fellowship, although they need not have completed their degree when submitting their application. Applicants must apply within five full-time-equivalent research years of completing their PhD program. New PhD graduates are particularly encouraged to apply. The track record of each applicant will be judged according to the stage of the applicant s research career at which they submit their application. Applications are welcome from scholars who work in any of the following areas: mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry, biology, biophysics, computer science, electrical engineering, or the philosophy of science. Applications are welcome from scholars of any nationality. V. Outputs Each fellow will be expected to undertake the following activities and produce the following outputs during their Fellowship: 1. Provide evidence of submission of at least four journal articles to peer-reviewed journals. The fellow should be the first author for at least two of these articles. 2. Present their work at a minimum of four national or international conferences. 3. Establish meaningful collaborations with at least two other laboratories or researchers. 4. Engage in at least two outreach activities aimed at sharing the findings of their research with non-specialist audiences. 5. Apply for at least one research grant from non-templeton sources (e.g., Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Royal Society University Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Australian Research Council, etc.). 3

4 VI. Application process Step 1: Identify a host institution It is the applicant s responsibility to identify an institution that is willing to host them for the duration of their Fellowship. As part of their application for the Fellowship, applicants must provide a letter of support from the proposed institution which clearly states that the institution will host the fellow if their Fellowship application is successful, and which sets out the conditions under which the fellow would be hosted. Those conditions must include a statement confirming the proposed salary and benefits for the prospective fellow, and should describe any other forms of support that the institution will give to the fellow in developing their career as an independent researcher. TWCF strongly encourages applicants to work with the research administration staff or office at the proposed host institution. Step 2: Submit the application All application materials should be submitted to TWCF by ing them to the following address: fellowship@templetonworldcharity.org. Applications submitted through any other mechanism, or after the closing date, will not be accepted. A complete application consists of four elements: 1. A completed application form. 2. A detailed description of the proposed project. 3. A letter of support from the host institution. 4. Letters of reference from two scholars familiar with their work, one of whom should be at an institution other than the applicant s current one. The primary elements of the application form are as follows: a. A lay summary of the proposed project, not to exceed 250 words. The summary should be written at the level of an educated but non-specialist reader. b. A statement, not to exceed 250 words, of how information functions as a fundamental concept within the proposed research. c. A justification of the selected host institution, not to exceed 250 words. The justification should explain why the chosen department and host institution are suitable places in which to conduct the proposed research. d. The names and addresses of two referees who will be providing letters of support for the applicant. e. A brief budget and budget narrative. Instructions for what items you should include in the budget, and how to write the budget narrative, may be found in the accompanying budget instructions at 4

5 Please provide all final budget amounts in US dollars. The detailed description of your proposed project must not exceed 5 pages. (Please note that this limit does not including bibliographic references.) Your description should explain the technical content of the project, provide a statement about how the proposed research will advance the field, and offer a description of the proposed outreach activities. It is the applicant s responsibility to ensure that their referees their letters of reference to fellowship@templetonworldcharity.org by the closing date. Applications whose letters of reference have not been received by that time will be deemed incomplete and will not be considered. TWCF will not follow up with applicants or referees should letters of reference be missing from an application when the application period closes. No more than two letters of reference should be submitted. Step 3: Notification of applicants All applications will be reviewed by a panel of distinguished experts. Projects will be judged according to their originality, as well as their significance both within and beyond the immediate discipline(s) in which they are situated. TWCF will endeavor to inform everyone who applies during the 2017 round of the outcome of their application by 31 May VII. Conditions of the Fellowship Fellows are expected to commence their Fellowship by the end of Fellows must provide quarterly reports to TWCF for the duration of the Fellowship. Continued receipt of funding is contingent upon submission of these reports, and upon satisfactory demonstration that the research is progressing appropriately. At the end of the third year of the Fellowship, fellows must submit a detailed final report describing what they have accomplished. Fellows may simultaneously hold other awards or Fellowships, but if they do they must report the details of those awards or Fellowships to TWCF. TWCF may modify the value of the Fellowship at its discretion based on the size of these other sources of funding. While the Fellowship is intended to primarily support the research activities of the fellow, fellows may undertake a limited amount of teaching at their host institution. Such arrangements require review by and the written consent of TWCF. VIII. Enquiries Please contact fellowship@templetonworldcharity.org if you have questions about any aspect of the Fellowship. 5