The John Templeton Foundation works to catalyze discoveries relating to the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind and supports research on a wide range of subjects, from complexity, evolution, and emergency to creativity, forgiveness, and free will.
In support of this mission, the foundation is accepting applications for its Academic Cross-Training Fellowship. With the intent to help equip recently tenured philosophers and theologians with the skills and knowledge needed to study big questions that require substantive and high-level engagement with empirical science, the fellowship will provide up to $220,000 over three years to support systematic and sustained study in an empirical science such as physics, psychology, biology, genetics, cognitive science, neuroscience, or sociology.
The purpose of the Cyberlearning for Work at the Human-Technology Frontier program is to fund exploratory and synergistic research in learning technologies to prepare learners to excel in work at the human-technology frontier. This program responds to the pressing societal need to educate and re-educate learners of all ages (students, teachers and workers) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content areas to ultimately function in highly technological environments, including in collaboration with intelligent systems. Innovative technologies can reshape learning processes, which in turn can influence new technology design. Learning technology research in this program should be informed by the convergence of multiple disciplines: education and learning sciences, computer and information science and engineering, and cognitive, behavioral and social sciences. This program funds learning technology research in STEM and other foundational areas that enable STEM learning.
Each ACT Fellowship will provide up to $220,000 for up to thirty-three months in support of a systematic and sustained course of study in an empirical science such as physics, psychology, biology, genetics, cognitive science, neuroscience, or sociology. Acceptable courses of study might include a plan to audit undergraduate and graduate-level courses, a plan to spend time in residence at a research lab, or a plan to earn a degree in an empirical science. This iteration of the program also will permit applicants to request that up to one year of the ACT Fellowship be used to support a small-scale pilot scientific research project that improves or enhances the capacity, skill, and talent of the fellow to investigate the above-described Big Questions. Fellows may undertake their study at their home institution or another institution. All fellows must have a faculty mentor in their cross-training discipline.
The Science of Learning program supports potentially transformative basic research to advance the science of learning. The goals of the SL Program are to develop basic theoretical insights and fundamental knowledge about learning principles, processes and constraints. Projects that are integrative and/or interdisciplinary may be especially valuable in moving basic understanding of learning forward but research with a single discipline or methodology is also appropriate if it addresses basic scientific questions in learning. The possibility of developing connections between proposed research and specific scientific, technological, educational, and workforce challenges will be considered as valuable broader impacts, but are not necessarily central to the intellectual merit of proposed research. The program will support research addressing learning in a wide range of domains at one or more levels of analysis including: molecular/cellular mechanisms; brain systems; cognitive affective, and behavioral processes; and social/cultural influences. The program supports a variety of methods including: experiments, field studies, surveys, secondary-data analyses, and modeling.
The HFSP supports novel, innovative and interdisciplinary basic research focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms; topics range from molecular and cellular approaches to systems and cognitive neuroscience and the interactions between organisms. A clear emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring biologists together with scientists from fields such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science and engineering to focus on problems at the frontier of the life sciences.
The Smart and Autonomous Systems (S&AS) program focuses on Intelligent Physical Systems (IPS) that are capable of robust, long-term autonomy requiring minimal or no human operator intervention in the face of uncertain, unanticipated, and dynamically changing situations. IPS are systems that combine perception, cognition, communication, and actuation to operate in the physical world. Examples include, but are not limited to, robotic platforms, self-driving vehicles, underwater exploration vehicles, and smart grids.
Most current IPS operate in pre-programmed ways and in a limited variety of contexts. They are largely incapable of handling novel situations, or of even understanding when they are outside their areas of expertise. To achieve robust, long-term autonomy, however, future IPS need to be aware of their capabilities and limitations and to adapt their behaviors to compensate for limitations and/or changing conditions.
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