The goals of the Foundational Questions Institute's Essay Competition are to:

• Encourage and support rigorous, innovative, and influential thinking.
• Identify and reward top thinkers in foundational questions.
• Provide an arena for discussion and exchange of ideas regarding foundational questions.

Competition Entrant: Anyone entering the Competition by submitting an essay via our webform on Submittable.com.

Essay Author: All Competition Entrants who are eligible to participate in the competition. Essay Authors are those with essays posted in the competition. All Essay Authors will be anonymous, with names and bios withheld until the winners are announced.

FQxI Members: Scientists and outreach specialists. You can see more information about who is a Member here.

Expert Reader: A group of people, selected by FQxI, who will read and rate all essays. This review will happen during the general voting period to ensure all essays are read and FQxI is provided a fair review of each.

Competition Evaluator: This includes Essay Authors, FQxI Members, and Expert Readers. These three groups can rate essays on a scale of 1 to 10 during the general voting period ending May 10, 2023.

Public Reader: Anyone who is not a Competition Evaluator. Public Readers can rate essays by 'liking' them and participate in discussions in the forums.

Essay Author Finalist: The Essay Authors who the Expert Judge panel will evaluate. (Includes Essay Authors with the top Competition Evaluator scores and a few Expert Readers' recommendations. But these groups are only eligible if they have, at minimum, rated the three essays assigned to them upon confirmation of their eligibility.

Expert Judge: This panel evaluates the finalists starting May 11, 2023, after the general voting period ends. Their evaluations are based on the criteria shared on this page. Their decisions are final.

• February 14, 2023, Contest Announced


• February 28, 2023, Open to Submissions


• Extended deadline! May 3, 2023, at 10 AM US EDT, Submissions Closed


• Extended deadline! until May 24, 2023, Competition Rating Period


• May 25, 2023, to July 11, 2023, Competition Judges Evaluation Period


• By July 12, 2023, Finalists Announced; Names Revealed

• 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 but will rather keep the theme, "HOW Could Science Be Different?" 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.

• Rigorously argued and supported.
• Clearly written: The essay is easy to understand and enjoyable to read, without reliance on equations. (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, can read and understand this essay. The essays will be judged on this basis.

In order to be judged, essays must at least satisfy minimal professional standards of acceptability for publication, both qualitative and quantitative.

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, content that may incite violence or hate crimes, or which denigrates specific groups of people.

To encourage ratings for each essay, once an essay is considered eligible, FQxI will notify the Essay Author. That confirmation email will also contain the names and links to the three essays. To qualify for the final round of judging, Essay Authors MUST RATE THESE THREE ASSIGNED ESSAYS (chosen at random).

We encourage you to read and rate more, though!

Eligible essays must comply with these guidelines:

• Submission Format: Essays must be submitted as PDF documents via this form on Submittable. You will need to create a Submittable account (separate from forums.fqxi.org accounts) to enter the contest. If you don't have an account, you'll be prompted to create one when accessing the application here.
• Page format: DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME OR BIO on the essay.. There are text fields on the form where you can enter all this information.
• Page format: INCLUDE PAGE NUMBERS at the bottom of each page, starting with page 1.
• Page size: 8 ½ x 11-inch page, 1-inch margins.
• Text: size 12pt Arial or Times New Roman font only.
• Spacing: 1.15 spacing between lines.
• Character limit: 25,000 CHARACTERS TOTAL(not including spaces).
• Essay Page limit: 9 PAGES TOTAL for the essay text.
• Extras: Color figures, as well as hyperlinks within the document, are acceptable.
• References and Endnotes: An addendum is discouraged, but Competition Entrants can provide two additional pages if desired: one-page reference and one-page technical endnotes. Each must be uploaded as a single one-page PDF following the page size and text size rules above. There is no guarantee these additional pages will be reviewed by readers or evaluators, including the Expert Judges.
• Language: We welcome essays from across the globe, but please note the essay must be submitted in English. For any questions regarding this matter, please contact FQxI.
• Keep it 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.

Please review your essay thoroughly before submitting it here. We will not accept requests for edits, and you are only able to submit one essay per person.

Registered Email: All Competition Entrants are required to register an email address on Submittable.com to submit your application, and then on fqxi.org to read, review, and rate essays on FQxI’s website.

Webform Submission only: All essays must be submitted using Submittable’s webform before April 19, 2023, at 10 AM Eastern Time.

Keep it ANONYMOUS: All essays must be submitted without the Essay Author's name in the essay PDF file. If you have concerns about keeping your essay anonymous, please do not enter the competition. By entering the competition, you agree to these rules.

One essay only: One essay per Essay Author only, whether individually or as part of a collaborative essay. Submittable’s webform for the competition only allows one entry per person. Check your work before submitting it; we can't make edits once it is posted.

Collaborative essays: Essays written by more than one Competition Entrant can be submitted. The entrants must choose one of the writers to submit on behalf of the group. Only the person who submits the essay can vote in the contest (unless the other authors are FQxI Members).

NO REPLACEMENT ESSAYS: FQxI will not replace or update essays. Please check your work before submitting it to the competition.

Once an essay is submitted, the Competition Entrants will receive two emails:

• Email 1 from Submittable: Notification from Submittable 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 us.)
• Email 2 from Submittable: If ineligible, you will get a notification via Submittable sharing this information. You can always try again before the submission deadline. —OR—
• Email 2 from FQxI: If eligible, you will get an email from FQxI. This email will include:
• Directions on how to access your temp email address and name for the competition only. Your pseudonym for the competition will be a randomly chosen color and animal. The account you will use for the duration of the competition is some version of ColorAnimal@temp-fake-email.fqxi.org (it will be tied to your regular account on fqxi.org if you have one). Please immediately change your password to ensure the privacy of your account.
• Information on how to vote (login with your temp email address, click any essay on the QSpace Entries page, and voting info is in the upper left corner). Rate the essay on a scale of 1-10 (10 being best). You'll be asked to enter two notes on the essay to validate your reason for the rating. This added mechanism is to help stop fraudulent voting.

• Links to three randomly chosen essays that are mandatory to review and rate if you want to be eligible for review by the Expert Judges if chosen as a finalist. Failure to rate these essays will disqualify you from possibly being on the Essay Author Finalists list if you have a high rating).

Posting timeline: All eligible essays will be posted online within 15 business days, with the exception of the first batch of 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 a large number of last-minute entries. Late entries could have as little as 1 day online before the voting period closes.

Anonymous: As a reminder, all Essay Authors' names and bios will be revealed at the end of the competition.

FQxI Endorsement: Posting an essay on the FQxI’s website for this Competition does not imply FQxI endorses the views represented within the essay. Do not misrepresent this. Your essay has not passed through peer review; we have not “published” your essay. 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 their 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.

Essay Authors may wish to publicize that they have entered the competition. If authors wish to provide a link, they should directly link to the Competition's main page rather than revealing their identity by directly linking to their own essay.

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 here. 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, 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 will need to 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. Essay Authors in such instances will have their ratings discarded and, in extreme or repetitive cases, their essays disqualified. Essay Authors and Essay Readers should alert FQxI with information if they witness such activities.
• Essay Authors should not give themselves a rating with the Competition Evaluator code. If an Essay Author does rate their 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 count the same 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' their 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, and accessible?).

This group may possibly include members of the Expert Readers group described above.

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

To be considered for the 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 May 11, 2023, the day after 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 top 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

The judges can award more than one or no winner 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 and Second Prize Winners will receive a nomination for FQxI Membership. (They will then be vetted through FQxI's Member nomination process to ensure they meet the qualifications for Membership.)

Possible publication: Springer will consider adapted material from the winning essays for possible publication. Previous publications of FQxI competition winners are available on FQxI's Bookshop.

Potential winners will be notified by email on or about July 11, 2023, 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 his/her/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 July 12, 2023.

Acceptance of a prize constitutes permission by Winner to use his/her/their name, photograph, and/or likeness for advertising, publicity, and promotion purposes without compensation (unless prohibited by law).

• 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 on Submittable. "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.
• Potential Competition Entrant's, 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, garbled, jumbled or delayed computer transmissions which may limit one's ability to enter this Competition, including any injury or damage to participant's or any other person's computer relating to or resulting from participating in this Competition or downloading any materials in this Competition.
• Not Eligible: The Competition is open to everybody except employees and consultants (including Competition Expert Judges) of the Sponsors (Fetzer Franklin Fund, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and the Foundational Questions 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 AN 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.