How to Submit a Proposal

We are currently soliciting proposals for programs to run in calendar year 2015 (Spring or Fall). (Programs for calendar years 2013 and 2014 are already decided.) We warmly invite all members of the Theoretical Computer Science and related communities to send us their most ambitious ideas, for consideration at the next meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board in late July, 2013. To ensure that your proposal is considered at this meeting, it needs to be received no later than July 1, 2013.

Proposals may be either for standard, semester-long programs, or for longer (one-year) programs, or for more experimental events such as short intensive programs or workshops. The following figures give a rough idea of the scale of a typical semester-long program. The program is run by a group of 4-6 Organizers, who oversee the scientific content and issue invitations to others to participate in the program. Most of the Organizers are expected to be in residence for a substantial portion of the program. The core participants consist of about 30-35 long-term (one month or more, ideally full semester) visitors, including the Organizers. These would typically include about 15-20 faculty, 6-10 "fellows" (junior scientists within at most about six years of Ph.D.), and 5-15 visiting and local graduate students. The program would typically include three week-long workshops during the semester, each of which attracts an additional 30-35 people. There will also be an introductory intensive course at the start of the program, and a week-long reunion workshop one year after the end of the program. The Organizers receive a budget that is intended to provide partial salary and expenses support for visitors, based on need.

The Institute is committed to identifying programs that can potentially lead to substantial advances in the field, rather than "business as usual." In keeping with this objective, we particularly encourage programs that bring together two or more distinct groups of researchers with related interests (some of which may lie outside theoretical CS) who do not generally collaborate on a regular basis; programs that seek to define an agenda for a relatively new subfield; or programs that propose a novel and timely attack on major open problems.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals in any reasonable format. As a guideline, however, we would expect a proposal for a semester-long program to include the following elements:

  • Program description (scientific scope, including a discussion of its potential impact both within and outside Theoretical CS) -- about 2-3 pages in length.
  • List of Program Organizers: 4-6 leading scientists, who together span the topics of the program and most or all of whom are committed to spending a substantial portion of the semester at the Institute.
  • List of other likely senior attendees: this should include other faculty-level visitors who will be invited to visit the program for extended periods (at least one month); please indicate which of these you have already contacted.
  • List of potential junior fellows: the program will have 6-8 of these; some positions will be left open for recruitment nearer the time, but some may be pre-allocated; this category may range in seniority from senior graduate students through junior faculty (up to about six years post-PhD).
  • List of invitees (junior and senior) who will further the Institute's goals of promoting the participation of women and under-represented minorities in its programs.
  • Brief (one paragraph each) descriptions of three workshops to be held during the program; for each workshop, please indicate potential organizers (may include one or more program Organizers, or may be disjoint), and a list of potential additional attendees. (It is assumed that most of the long-term program participants will attend the workshops as well.)

Submitting your Proposal

Proposals should be emailed as a single PDF document to any or all members of the Institute leadership listed below, all of whom will be happy to answer questions or assist with the development of proposals.