Zenith Grants
Current Status: Closed
Eligibility: Researchers and Outreach Specialists Worldwide
The zenith is the highest point achieved by a celestial body in the night sky.
Over $27 million dollars in Zenith Grants (formerly: FQxI’s Large Grants) have been awarded in multiple RFPs. These Zenith Grants are awarded (through the FQxI Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, or directly by FQxI) as research grants to theorists and experimenters in support of personnel, equipment, travel, workshops, and experiments; some funding also targets projects that effectively disseminate information about foundational research to laypeople. Proposals are subject to a competitive evaluation process of expert peer review similar to that employed by national scientific funding agencies.
Past Awardees
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Angelo Bassi
University of Trieste
Consciousness and wave function collapse
$74,750
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Caslav Brukner
Veronika Baumann
IQOQI Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences
IQOQI Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Conscious Encapsulated Observers
$109,900
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
University of Haifa
Studying the boundaries of self-consciousness using a unique MEG-neurophenomenology setup
$124,235
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Catalina Curceanu
Lajos Diósi
Maaneli Derakhshani
INFN – Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
Wigner Research Centre for Physics
Rutgers University
ICON: Novel intertwined theoretical and experimental approach to test the ORCHestrated Objective Reduction theory as physical basis of consciousness
$78,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Eliahu Cohen
Yakir Aharonov
Avshalom Elitzur
Avishy Carmi
Bar-Ilan University
Chapman University
Chapman University
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
The hard problem viewed from a top-down quantum vantage point
$56,350
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
H. K. Andersen
Simon Fraser University
Temporal Structure in the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness
$56,524
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Howard Wiseman
Eric Cavalcanti
Peter Evans
Griffith University
Griffith University
The University of Queensland
Quantum and consciousness: paths to experiment, and implications for interpretations
$63,187
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
James Crutchfield
Art and Science Laboratory
Quantitative Explorations in Nonhuman Consciousness—Signatures of Cetacean Intelligence and Social Awareness
$87,082
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Doris Y. Tsao
Janis K. Hesse
California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
Neural construction of conscious perception
$100,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Joseph Kirschvink
Shinsuke Shimojo
Felicity Meakins
California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
University of Queensland
Cross-Linguistic EEG Comparisons on the use of Geomagnetic Cues by the Human Brain as a Path for Understanding Consciousness
$100,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Karim Jerbi
University of Montreal
Quale weaving: Probing integrated information theory through neurofeedback
$88,596
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Kelvin McQueen
Marcus Müller
Chapman University
IQOQI Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Mathematical models of idealism and dualism: an adversarial collaboration
$31,728
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Kobi Kremnitzer
University of Oxford
Pump priming for a new Centre for Mathematical Approaches to Consciousness at Oxford
$196,232
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Lee Smolin
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Consciousness in the causal theory of views
$49,500
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Lidia del Rio
ETH Zürich – Institute for Theoretical Physics
Conditions for sentience in physical theories
$90,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Matilde Marcolli
California Institute of Technology
Towards a Topological Model of Consciousness
$94,217
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Moshe Shay Ben-Haim
Ran R. Hassin
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Consciousness Without Language: Exploration in Non-Verbal Species and Human Babies
$150,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Nao Tsuchiya
Hayato Saigo
Steven Phillips
Monash University
Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, Japan
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
Precision phenomenology: revealing the structure of qualia
$66,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Sean Tull
Quanlong Wang
Johannes Kleiner
Bob Coecke
Topos Institute
University of Oxford and Topos Institute
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
University of Oxford
Categorical Theories of Consciousness: Bridging Neuroscience and Fundamental Physics
$108,573
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
Wojciech Zurek
Theiss Research
Conscious of a Classical World in a Quantum Universe
$75,000
Consciousness in the Physical World, 2020
QSpace Latest
PressRelease: Precision experiment puts pressure on quantum collapse theories
Quantum mechanics, the theory governing the microscopic world, is famously counterintuitive. A particle can exist in a superposition of multiple states, such as different positions, until a measurement is performed. At that point, the wavefunction describing that particle appears to ‘collapse’ to a single outcome. This puzzle lies at the heart of the measurement problem, famously illustrated by Schrödinger’s cat, suspended between life and death until observed. The XENONnT detector, which was designed to be sensitive to rare physics events, has tightened constraints on one family of possible solutions to the measurement problem, known as ‘collapse theories.’ The work, which was partially funded by FQxI, was reported in Physical Review Letters in March 2026. Image credit: XENON Collaboration.