Direct Support of Research
Proposal guidelines for the Known, Unknown, and Unknowable
Jesse H. Ausubel, Program Director
The Foundation will consider proposals for conferences on the Known, Unknown, and Unknowable for issues and problems of broad public interest.
The conference must:
- Directly and explicitly address the Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. This vocabulary must pervade the agenda, be used in any papers that are commissioned, etc.
- Include substantial participation of the "Consumers" of the knowledge produced by the experts in field of interest, such as managers in government or business, and popularizers of the knowledge in this field (such as journalists in radio or print media); at least 1/4th of the attendees should be Consumers.
- Result in at least one review article for scientific peers, e.g., publishable in the Annual Reviews series, on K-U-U and one piece aimed at Consumers (e.g., in Atlantic or Harper's magazine, or Sunday NY Times).
- Clearly state a few of the big questions for Consumers. For example, in the field of meteorology, one can ask "Is the weather more than 5 days in the future knowable?"
- Include a draft invitation letter, draft agenda, tentative list of invitees, brief (4-5 page) discussion of the issues to be debated (with equal attention to issues of the Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable), and a clear organizational timeline for the activity, including publication of "results" as noted above.