This past winter, FQXi announced it's fifth Large Grant program, on the topic of The Physics of What Happens - a call for proposals for research and outreach projects on "Events". I am happy to announce that from an initial group of almost 250 proposals, we now have the list of 20 grantees. You may view the list here. These grants will give the research teams funding for the next two years, starting September 2015.
The total amount given out comes to $1.85M. This is a relatively tiny amount in the world of physics, especially considering that this is an international grant program. This fact means that, while our review panel ultimately preferred these 20, many of the other proposals were excellent, worthy projects, which we would gladly support if we had the funds.
For the sake of discussion, I'd like to mention a few research themes that showed up in multiple applications, possibly suggesting the directions that many researchers are looking these days. These hot topics include:
1. Nonlocality (i.e. Is an event defined by what happens in multiple locations?).
2. The Nature of Causality in a quatum world.
3. Noncontextuality, possibly as the prime indicator of quantum-ness (above the previous favorite, entanglement).
We again congratulate our new grantees. We also thank everyone who applied, especially those who were invited to submit full proposals, which took a great deal of time and resources to prepare. We wish to offer another round of grants in the near future, and we wish everyone will take a chance to apply.