THE TURING CENTENARY RESEARCH PROJECT: MIND, MECHANISM
AND MATHEMATICS
Turing Centenary Research Fellowship and
Scholar Competitions - How to Apply
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Honorary Chairs:
- Rodney Brooks
- Sir Roger Penrose
The Project (click here)
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Timeline:
- First call for proposals - April 2011
- Submission deadline - December 21, 2011 (extended)
- Award Notification - March 31, 2012 (expected April 2)
- Award Ceremony - Turing Centenary day, June 23, 2012
- Commencement of the research project - July 1, 2012
- Completion of the research project - June 30, 2015
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Contents:
- The Turing Centenary Research Fellowship and Scholar Competitions
- Eligibility
- Details of the Scheme
- The Judges for the Four Research Themes
- Application Requirements
- Acceptable Uses of Grant Funds
- Judging Criteria
- Filters
- Criteria of Merit
- Submission +
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1. The Turing Centenary Research Fellowship and Scholar Competitions
The Competition entails a comprehensive search, within the context of the
Alan Turing Year, for brilliant young researchers to take up
eight research prizes; Five to be awarded via the
JTF Turing Centenary Research Fellowship Competition, and
three under the JTF Turing Centenary Research
Scholar Competition.
It is anticipated that the centenary interest in Turing-related
scientific issues, such as physical computability, mechanical
intelligence, the impact of incomputable and emergent phenomena
in the real-world context, will provide a springboard to a highly
successful and effective competition.
And that the resulting awards will deliver a
long-term impact upon the field.
2. Eligibility
The prospective Turing Fellows should not have
completed their Ph.D.
(or equivalent) more than 10 years (excluding maternity leave and
similar periods of interrupted research)
previous to the submission
deadline.
The potential Turing Scholars must be
no more than 25 years old at
the time of the submission deadline, with the prizes in this
category funded under the JTF 'Exceptional Cognitive Talent and Genius' scheme.
3. Details of the Scheme
The 3-year research proposals, under each category,
will be submitted under one of the
Research Themes 1 - 4 listed above, and should
address at least one Big Question.
There will be a total of 8 awards, £75,000 for each of the
Turing Fellows,
and £45,000 for each Turing Scholar.
It is intended for the normal pattern to be two
awards under each theme, with at least one and not more than
three awards under any given theme, the exact distribution
depending on the distribution and quality of the proposals received.
For both categories, Scholars and Fellows, there is a single
round of judging, with a Budget and a ten-page Project Description
(prepared under standard formatting rules) being main items.
The Project Description should outline the proposed research,
and describe the available facilities which the proposer expects to
have available for pursuing the research during the period of
the award. Also, each proposer should provide the names of
three referees who have agreed to provide an opinion on
the potential of the applicant for original research related
to one of the main research themes.
In addition, the prospective Turing Scholars will be asked to submit
a ten-page dissertation related to one of the 'big questions'.
This dissertation should exhibit novelty of thinking, and engagement
with the background to the question considered. Prospective
Turing Scholars will also be asked to provide evidence that the
tenure of the award will coincide with a period of research
training. This evidence can take various forms -
for example, acceptance for PhD training at a recognized centre,
or sponsorship by a faculty member at a respected research
centre, who agrees to mentor the training and research
of the Turing Scholar.
4. The Judges for the Four Research Themes
Chair of the Judges:
S Barry Cooper (Leeds)
The
Judges for Research Theme 1
(The Mathematics of Emergence: The Mysteries of Morphogenesis):
The
Judges for Research Theme 2
(Possibility of Building a Brain: Intelligent Machines, Practice
and Theory):
The
Judges for Research Theme 3
(Nature of Information: Complexity, Randomness, Hiddenness of Information):
The
Judges for Research Theme 4
(How should we compute? New Models of Logic and Computation):
The judges will evaluate the proposals within their
respective themes, and recommend up to three Turing Fellows,
and two Turing Scholars under the relevant theme. The final
decision will be via collective discussion of all jury members.
The Chair will be independent and not vote in any final
decision process.
5. Application Requirements
There will be a single round of applications, with full
proposals comprised as follows:
- A 500-1000 word summary of the project, explaining
in non-technical terms the work and its greater theoretical
and philosophical significance, suitable for publication in
a journal or on a website.
- An outline budget over the 3-year life of the award, with
description and justification of how the money would be spent.
- A CV (not more than four pages) for
the proposer, highlighting those features
(training, publications, professional talks, awards, etc.)
most relevant for evaluating the success and merit of
the applicant and project.
- A detailed description of the proposed research, and a
description of the facilities which the proposer expects to have
available for pursuing the research during the period of the
award, not to exceed 10 single-spaced 12-point-font pages.
The proposal should make clear how the project meets all the
criteria stated below.
- A detailed time-line and description of deliverables.
- Scanned signed letters of recommendation from three referees
who have agreed
to provide an
opinion on the potential of the applicant for original research
related to one of the main research themes.
Referees
may express in their recommendations a willingness to give further
more confidential information via email if requested to do so by the judges.
- In addition, the prospective Turing Scholars will
be asked to submit a ten-page dissertation
related to one of the 'big questions'.
This dissertation should exhibit novelty of thinking, and engagement
with the background to the question considered.
- Prospective Turing Scholars will also be asked to provide
evidence that the tenure of the award will coincide with a period
of research training. This evidence can take various forms -
for example, acceptance for PhD training at a recognized centre,
or sponsorship by a faculty member at a respected research
centre, who agrees to mentor the training and
research of the Turing Scholar.
Completed full proposals will undergo a competitive process of
external and confidential expert peer review by the judges. Each
proposal will be evaluated according to the criteria stipulated.
6. Acceptable Uses of Grant Funds
Acceptable use of grant funds includes the following:
- Student or postdoctoral salary, fees or
benefits for part of the academic year.
- Support for specific research projects during sabbaticals.
- Assistance in writing or publishing books.
- An allowance (less than 10%)
for computers, computer software, data storage, books, and other
relevant consumables.
- Travel and subsistence support for research visits,
or participation in relevant conferences, workshops or training events.
- Development of workshops, conferences, or other activities
contributing directly to the research or scientific progress
in the relevant field.
- Indirect costs and estate costs are not covered by the award.
Awards do not cover financial, personnel and other central or departmental
services, library services,
administrative, general running or overhead and other unspecified costs,
office expenses, photocopying, publishing costs, stationery, postage, telephone, faxes etc.
and general premises or accommodation costs.
7. Judging Criteria
- The judges will use a score sheet that will include key
filters and a complete list of criteria. The score sheet will be set
up so as to take both past success and future promise into
consideration and will be designed to assess people and their ideas.
The most important issue is the potential, both short and long-term,
for work relevant to answering the big questions.
- Arising from their examination of each proposal, each judge will
generate a final rank ordering, based on their score sheet,
as moderated by their expert overall assessment of the global
character of the research and the candidate.
- The rank orderings will be collated and final decisions
transmitted accordingly by the Chair, in discussion with the
judges, as described above.
- The aim will be to distribute the prizes evenly between
the four research themes. However, there will be flexibility to
reward exceptional strength in one or more of the themes,
as agreed by the Chair in discussion with the judges.
The number of awards under each theme should be
between one and three.
8. Filters
In order to direct expert consideration to the most serious
contenders, the following filters need to be used in
selecting the candidates:
- Works submitted for the Research Grant must not be 'guild-normal'
such that they could be in principle fundable by conventional
funding. We wish to enable research that, because of its ambitious,
non-mainstream nature, is not in a situation to be supported by
mainstream sources. Note that this has nothing to do with any
particular content or conclusion bias, but only with the deeper
significance of the work for foundational questions.
- Works must be rigorous and deeply creative in terms of ideas
and the demonstrated capabilities and talents of the applicants.
- Works must be pushing themselves towards an area of inquiry that
is clearly and straightforwardly foundational. The offer of the
Research Grant will be limited to research with potentially significant
and broad implications for our basic and 'big picture'
understanding of computability in nature and mentality.
- The research in question must truly and deeply bear on the central
theoretical issues enumerated under the four research themes.
Technical and empirically oriented proposals are ideal, however,
merely technical proposals, the results of which do not clearly bear
on the essential questions, will not be considered for funding.
It is the sole burden of the applicant to make the detailed case.
- The proposed research should be multidisciplinary and
foundational in its expected consequences.
9. Criteria of Merit
- Intrinsic intellectual merit, scientific rigor and originality
of the submitted proposal.
- Potential for significant contribution to basic foundational
understanding of computability in nature and mentality,
and the likelihood for opening new fruitful lines of inquiry.
- Qualifications and recommendations of the applicants and proposals.
- Persuasiveness of realism and practicality of the plan of the
applicants to use the grant to continue and advance the themes explored
in the proposal. And, in the case of the Scholars, the relevance
to the building of an enduring career in science.
10. Submission
Submission of proposals
is via the EasyChair submission page. Here are some
to help you with submitting your proposal. For further
information: pmt6sbc @ leeds.ac.uk
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