Foundational Questions Institute (FQxI)

The Foundational Questions Institute, styled FQxI (formerly FQXi), is a US nonprofit organization dedicated to catalyzing, supporting, and disseminating research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology. Founded in 2005 by cosmologists Max Tegmark and Anthony Aguirre, the institute aims to explore unconventional scientific inquiries that are often underfunded due to their nonmainstream or high-risk nature.

Mission and Activities

FQxI focuses on advancing high-risk, high-reward science, particularly in areas such as quantum foundations, cosmology, and the philosophy of physics. It achieves this through various programs:

• Grantmaking: FQxI offers grants to support innovative research projects. Since 2006, it has awarded over 234 grants across ten rounds, totaling more than $27 million. Grant topics have included the nature of time, the physics of information, and the physics of the observer.

• Essay Contests: The institute conducts essay competitions open to the public, with prizes and publication opportunities. These contests encourage a wide range of perspectives on foundational questions.

Funding and Governance

FQxI is an independent, philanthropically funded organization. It was initially supported with a $6.2 million seed grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Additional funding comes from individual donors, foundations, and corporations such as the Fetzer Institute and the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation.

The institute is currently managed by David Sloan as Chief Scientific Officer and Kavita Rajanna as Managing Director.

Notable Members

FQxI's membership includes several prominent scientists, with five members being Nobel laureates in Physics: Gerard 't Hooft, Anthony Leggett, Frank Wilczek, Roger Penrose, and Anton Zeilinger. Its Scientific Advisory Council comprises renowned experts such as Jim Al-Khalili, Sean Carroll, David Chalmers, and Carlo Rovelli.

Impact

FQxI is recognized for fostering innovative scientific inquiry and public engagement with complex scientific questions. Its approach encourages the exploration of unorthodox ideas that might otherwise lack support in traditional academic settings.