Foundational Questions Institute

The Foundational Questions Institute, styled FQXi, is an organization that provides grants to "catalyze, support, and disseminate research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology." It was founded in 2005 by cosmologist Max Tegmark, who holds the position of Scientific Director. It has run four worldwide grant competitions (in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2013), the first of which provided US$2M to 30 projects. It has also run four essay contests open to the general public, with $40,000 in prizes awarded by a jury panel.

FQXi is an independent, philanthropically funded non-profit organization, run by scientists for scientists, with a Scientific Advisory Board including John Barrow, Nick Bostrom, Gregory Chaitin, David Chalmers, Alan Guth, Martin Rees, Eva Silverstein, Lee Smolin, Frank Wilczek, and Dieter Zeh.

The seed funding was donated by the John Templeton Foundation.

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