• On Topic: While all our Competition topics are broad, successful essays will not use this breadth as an excuse to shoehorn in the Essay Author's pet topic. Instead, they will keep the "How Quantum is Life?" theme as their central focus.

• Original and Creative: Foremost, the intellectual content of the essay must push forward understanding of the topic in a fresh way or with a new perspective. While the essay may or may not constitute original research, if the core ideas are largely contained in published works, those works should be those of the Essay Author. At the same time, the entry should differ substantially from any previously published piece by the author.

• All essays should be rigorously argued and well supported.

• Clearly written: The essay should be easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

• Not overly technical: Equations may be included in the essay, but we advise against this. If equations are used, the accompanying text must still be fully understood without them; otherwise, the essay could be disqualified for being too technical.

• Accessible: A diverse, well-educated, but non-specialist audience, aiming in the range between the level of Scientific American and a review article in Science or Nature, should be able to read and understand this essay.

• Essay Authors suggesting novel experimental approaches to addressing issues will be considered favorably at the evaluation stage. This criterion is not a requirement to be a Prize Winner.

All eligible essays will be:

1. Relevant: The essay must be relevant to the topic, "How Quantum is Life?" (This is also one of the criteria for the Expert Judges' review.)

2. Accessible: The essay must be readable and understandable to non-specialist audiences, not overly technical. (This is also the criteria for the Expert Judges' review.)

3. Submitted via FQxI's Submission Form - Competition Entrants must use a QSpace Forums account to submit an entry via the submission form.

4. Within the Text Limit: (25,000-character limit)

5. Minimal in References and Endnotes: An addendum is discouraged, but Competition Entrants can provide additional references and technical endnotes in the text boxes provided on the application. There is no guarantee Public Readers or Competition Evaluators, including the Expert Judges, will review these additional pages. All essays should be accessible so readers can understand the essay without these notes. Excessively technical essays could be disqualified.

6. Written or Translated into English: We welcome essays from across the globe, but the essay should be submitted in English. There are online translation tools, such as DeepL or Google Translate, that Competition Entrants can use. Please note: we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these online sites, so please have someone proofread your essay if possible. Please contact FQxI if you have questions.

7. Anonymous: Essays should make no implicit or explicit reference to the Essay Author. This includes referring to the Essay Author's other outputs in the first person or heavily referencing the Competition Entrant's own work, making it very clear that you are the author.

8. Not Harmful: Essays deemed offensive will be disqualified and will not be displayed on the site. Examples of offensive content include, but are not limited to, inappropriate language (curse words, epithets, flame wars, advertisements, etc.), pornography, and content that may incite violence or hate crimes, or which denigrates specific groups of people.

Please review your essay thoroughly before submitting it to the Competition. We will not accept requests for edits once an essay is posted to the Competition Entries page.

1. Create an FQxI QSpace Forums Account: All Competition Entrants who do not already have an account on FQxI's QSpace Forums must create an account to access the submission form, rate essays, and post comments.

2. Use the Online Submission Form: All essays must be submitted using FQxI's submission form before September 29, 2025, at 10 AM US Eastern Time.

3. Save Your Essay: Competition Entrants can save your answers on the submission form. Press the "Save" button on the bottom left and finish your submission at a later date. If you do not submit your essay by the deadline, September 29, 2025, at 10 AM US Eastern Time, your essay will not be entered into the Competition. Depending on the date you create your essay entry, FQxI will send an automated email to remind you to finish your entry.

4. Submit Your Essay: When you have finished filling out and reviewing your submission form, press the "Submit" button on the bottom left. Remember the entry deadline is September 29, 2025, at 10 AM US Eastern Time.

5. Keep it Anonymous: Do not include the Competition Entrant's name in the essay text. If you have concerns about keeping your essay anonymous, please do not enter the Competition. If your essay is deemed eligible, you will be assigned a randomly selected display name to use for the Competition.

6. Submit only One Essay per Person: One essay per Competition Entrant only, individually or as part of a collaborative essay. If you submit an individual essay, you can't submit another one as a co-author.

Please note: there will be no option to replace your essay once it is posted on the Competition Entries page. Please check your work before submitting your essay. We will not allow for edits once the essay is posted.

• First Name, Last Name

• Email Address

• Current Job Title/Place of Work: If you are currently a student, please include your current education level and university name.

• Essay Title

• Essay Abstract: (900 character limit) The abstract will be posted alongside your essay in an effort to entice readers to read your essay.

• 5 Keywords: These words should appropriately describe key components of your essay. These keywords will be searchable.

• Bio: (600 character limit) The bio will be posted online once the Prize Winners are announced around December 15, 2025.

• Essay Text: (25,000 character limit)

• Optional Technical Endnotes: (3,000 character limit)

• Optional Reference Page: (3,000 character limit)

• Automated Confirmation: Notification that the submission has been received. (If you do not receive this email within 24 hours of your submission, please check your spam/junk folders before contacting FQxI.) This email is not a confirmation of eligibility.

• Eligibility Decision: Competition Entrants will receive a notification regarding eligibility within 15 business days* of submitting an essay.

  *We will wait until there are 10 or more eligible entries before posting to the Competition Entries page.

• Ineligible Notification: FQxI is unable to provide feedback on ineligibility. Please review the Essay Eligibility section above to better understand why an essay was deemed ineligible.

• Eligible Notification: If eligible, your email will include the following:

• Anonymous Name and Login Info: You will receive directions on how to access your temporary email address and name, a randomly chosen version of AnimalColor@temp-fake-email.fqxi.org, to be used for the duration of the Competition. All comments posted to the Competition will also use this name. Once the Prize Winners are announced, your name will be visible on your essay and on any public comments you've made.
• Voting Code: Your voting code (one per eligible essay) and information on how to vote on the Competition Entries page will be included.
• Peer Rating Requirement: You will receive links to three essays assigned to you at random. To qualify for the final round of judging, Essay Authors must rate these three assigned essays. You must enter two notes on the essay to validate your reason for the rating. These notes will be reviewed in the case of voter fraud.

Failure to rate these essays will make your essay ineligible for the Essay Author Finalists list, even if your essay has the highest ratings. FQxI will send automated emails with a reminder to rate your assigned essays.

We encourage you to read and rate more than these three essays if you can!

• Posting timeline: All eligible essays will be posted online with an anonymous name within 15 business days, except for the first 10-15 essays. We will post the first batch of essays once we have received ~10 eligible essays.

• Apply early!: The earlier a Competition Entrant submits an essay, the more readers the essay is likely to receive. Essays received on the deadline will be posted in batches up to 15 business days after the competition ends, possibly later if there are many last-minute entries. Late entries could have as little as 1 day online before the voting period closes.

• FQxI Endorsement: Posting an essay on the FQxI’s website for this Competition does not imply that FQxI endorses the views represented within the essay. Do not misrepresent this. Your essay has not passed through peer review; FQxI has not “published” your essay, in the academic sense. To represent your entry as such is fraud.

• Read and Discuss: Once essays are posted on FQxI’s website, the Essay Author and interested readers (including FQxI Members, other Essay Authors in this Competition, and the general public) are invited to discuss and comment on the essay.

• Constructive Comments: Although commenters will be rating the essays, the goal of the forum is to discuss the essays and the ideas they raise; thus, commenters are strongly encouraged to cultivate a supportive atmosphere of scientific conversation rather than a judgmental atmosphere of critical scoring and evaluation.
• Don't Link to Your Own Essay: Essay Authors must NOT post links to your own essays in discussions of other essays unless there is very direct relevance to the topic under discussion. Infringement of this will be grounds for disqualification. The comment will also be deleted. To publicize your entry into the Competition, you can link to the Competition Introduction or Entries page.
• Follow Forum Rules: All comments in the Essay Competition Forum must abide by FQxI’s terms of use and appropriate content rules, which can be found at the top of each page. FQxI reserves the right to remove comments deemed abusive or off-topic, or unsuitable in any other way.

• Every FQxI Member and approved Essay Author will be provided with a code allowing them to rate essays as a 'Competition Evaluator,' on a scale of 1-10 (10 being extremely relevant, interesting, rigorously argued, and accessible). FQxI expects those providing Competition Evaluations to do so based solely on the quality of the essay assessed.

• To help discourage voter fraud and guard against rating essays without properly reading them, all Competition Evaluators must provide a brief justification for their score. These notes will be viewed by FQxI and not shared publicly. We will reference these notes if an Essay Author is accused of fraud.

• Voting collusion or bartering, mass down-voting, and other forms of 'voter fraud' will not be tolerated. In such instances, Essay Authors will have ratings discarded or have the essay disqualified, in extreme or repetitive cases. Essay Authors and Essay Readers should alert FQxI with information if they witness such activities.

• Essay Authors should not give yourselves a rating with the Competition Evaluator code. If an Essay Author does rate your own essay, we will dismiss this rating. It will not count towards the Essay Author Competition Evaluator rating total.

• FQxI will select ~5 Expert Readers who will each be tasked with reading and rating entries. Each essay will have at most 2 reviews from these Expert Readers. Their notes will provide us with information on all essays; this is especially helpful if there are any charges of fraud. Their rankings will also ensure good essays are not getting lost and might impact who the Expert Judges decide to include for final review (outside the top Competition Evaluator-ranked essays). The Expert Reader ratings will carry the same weight as all other Competition Evaluators (i.e., they will have a similar voting code that allows for one vote per essay).

• The Expert Readers will be confidential; their names will not be released, though they are free to post online comments.

• Members of the public, i.e., Essay Readers, will also be encouraged to rate essays by "liking" them.

• Prizes will not be awarded directly on the basis of Essay Reader and Competition Evaluator "likes," but the number of "likes" an essay has may influence Competition Evaluators to read and rate the essay. Competition Evaluators are free to "like" your own essay.

• A panel of Expert Judges, chosen by FQxI, will be asked to carefully evaluate, deliberate upon, and rate the Essay Author finalists, based on the "Evaluation Criteria” shared here (i.e., is it relevant, interesting, rigorously argued, and accessible?).

• The Expert Judge panel will be confidential; their names will not be released, though they are free to post online comments.

• To be considered as finalists, the Essay Author must rate the three essays assigned to them before the close of voting (sent via the confirmation email).

• 30-40 Essay Author Finalists will be determined on or after October 22, 2025, once voting closes. Once this minimum rating requirement is met, the finalists will be chosen as follows:

• The Essay Author Finalists will consist of the entries with the highest Competition Evaluator ratings, that have each received at least ten ratings.
• In addition to the base set of 30, the Expert Judges will select up to 15 additional entries, at their discretion or as advised by the Expert Readers, to form the full pool of Essay Author Finalists.

Cash

There will be up to $53,000 in cash prizes awarded in this Competition. The Expert Judges can award multiple or no winners in each of the prize categories:

• First Prize: US$10,000 each
• Second Prize: US$5,000 each
• Third Prize: US$2,000 each
• Fourth Prize: US$1,000 each
• Discretionary Prizes: as determined by the judges

Non-Cash Prizes

Member Nomination: In addition to the cash prizes, First Prize Winners will receive a nomination for FQxI Membership. Please note: a nomination does not guarantee Membership. First Prize Winners will be vetted through FQxI's Member nomination process to ensure they meet the qualifications for Membership.

• Potential winners will be notified by email on or about December 2, 2025, and will be required to execute and return an Affidavit of Eligibility/Release/Prize Acceptance Form within fourteen (14) days of attempted notification. Each participant selected as a potential winner must comply with all terms and conditions set forth in these Official Rules, and winning is contingent upon fulfilling all such requirements.

• If the winner cannot be contacted within seven (7) calendar days of the first notification attempt, if the prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, if the winner rejects their prize, or in the event of non-compliance with these Competition Official Rules, such prize will be forfeited, and an alternate winner will be selected from all remaining eligible entries. Upon prize forfeiture, no compensation will be given.

• The names of Winners will be posted on www.fqxi.org on or about December 15, 2025.

• Copyright: The Sponsors reserve no copyrights to the submitted work; however, by submitting an entry, the Competition Entrant hereby grants to the Sponsors a worldwide, royalty-free license to so post the essay, as well as use the essay for internal and advertising, marketing and promotional purposes for FQxI, in perpetuity, in any and all media now known or hereafter invented.
• Original work only: By submitting an essay, the Competition Entrant represents and warrants that the essay is Competition Entrant's own creation and is 100% original work; is not subject to, and does not infringe upon, the rights of any third parties, including without limitation, copyright, trademark or privacy or publicity rights; and is not defamatory, obscene or otherwise illegal.
• Identification: All Competition Entrants must have a valid email address and must not misrepresent who they are. In case of dispute as to the identity of a Competition Entrant, the entry will be declared made by the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at the time of entry. "Authorized Account Holder" is defined as the natural person who is assigned an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, or other organization (e.g., business, educational, institution, etc.) responsible for assigning email addresses or the domain associated with the submitted email address. Any other attempted form of entry is prohibited: no automatic, programmed, robotic, or similar means of entry are permitted.
• Submission Issues: FQxI is not responsible for technical, hardware, software, telephone or other communications malfunctions, errors or failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, website, Internet, or ISP unavailability, unauthorized human intervention, traffic congestion, incomplete or inaccurate capture of entry information (regardless of cause) or failed, incomplete, or delayed computer transmissions which may limit one’s ability to enter this Competition, including any injury or damage to any computer relating to or resulting from downloading any materials for this Competition.
• Not Eligible: The Competition is open to everybody except employees and consultants (including Expert Judges) of the Sponsors (Foundational Questions Institute and Paradox Science Institute) and each of their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising and promotion agencies (collectively, the "Competition Entities") and their family/household members (defined as parents, spouse/partner, children, siblings, grandparents). FQxI Members, including the Scientific Advisory Council, are eligible.
• Forum rules: Competition Entrants will abide by all rules regarding behavior on the forums. Violation of forum rules will be grounds for disqualification. Forum rules can be found here.
• Release: By submitting an entry in the Competition, the Competition Entrant agrees to release, defend and hold harmless the Competition Entities and each of their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, volunteers, the Expert Judges, and their affiliates, heirs, successors and assigns from and against, and waive any right to pursue, any and all claims of any nature whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the Competition, the selection of Winners, and the use of the submitted essay, the Essay Author's name, and biographical information as authorized under these Competition rules. Competition Entrants not complying with the Competition requirements will be subject to disqualification.

• All decisions of the Expert Judges are final, and the selection of Winners is at the sole and absolute discretion of FQxI.
• Taxes: All Prizes are subject to United States Income Tax. Winners are required to furnish FQxI with appropriate tax forms for reporting the Prize. All winners must determine whether taxes should be withheld from the Prize money based on the applicable tax laws. FQxI can not give tax advice.

• Void where prohibited by law. FQxI reserves the right to refuse to award any Prize if doing so violates any applicable laws.
• Sponsors reserve the right to cancel or modify this Competition in the event that an insufficient number of entries are received that meet the minimum judging criteria.
• This Competition shall be construed in accordance with U.S. law. All Federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply.
• CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY A COMPETITION ENTRANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE COMPETITION MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, THE COMPETITION ENTITIES RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.