An International Request for Proposals – Frequently Asked Questions

Does FLI have particular agenda or position on AI safety?

FLI’s position is well summarized by the open letter that FLI’s founders and many of its advisory board members have signed. The research program is aimed at the goals expressed in that letter, and toward the sort of research described in the attached research priorities document.

Who is eligible for grants?

Researchers and outreach specialists working in academic and other non-profit institutions are eligible, as well as independent researchers. Grant awards are sent to the PI’s institution and the institution’s administration is responsible for disbursing the awards to the PI. When submitting your application, please make sure to list the appropriate grant administrator that we should contact at your institution.

If you are not affiliated with a research institution, there are many organizations that will help administer your grant. If you need suggestions, please contact FLI. Applicants are *not* required to be affiliated with an institution for the Initial Proposal, only for the Full Proposal.

Can researchers from outside the U.S. apply?

Yes, applications will be welcomed from any country.

Please note that the US Government imposes restrictions on the types of organizations to which US nonprofits (such as FLI) can give grants. Given this, if you are awarded a grant, your institution must a) prove their equivalency to a non-profit institution by providing the institution’s establishing law or charter, list of key staff and board members, and a signed affidavit for public universities and, b) comply with the U.S. Patriot Act. Please note that this is included to provide information about the equivalency determination process that will take place if you are awarded a grant. If there are any issues with your granting institution proving its equivalency, FLI can help provide a list of organizations that can act as a go-between to administer the grant. More detail about international grant compliance is available on our website here. Please contact FLI if you have any questions about whether your institution is eligible, to get a list of organizations that can help administer your grant, or if you want to review the affidavit that public universities must fill out.

Can I submit an application in a language other than English?

All proposals must be in English. Since our grant program has an international focus, we will not penalize applications by people who do not speak English as their first language. We will encourage the review panel to be accommodating of language differences when reviewing applications. All applications must be coherent.

How and when do we apply?

Apply online here. Please submit an Initial Proposal by March 1, 2015. After screening, you may then be invited to submit a Full Proposal, due May 17, 2015. Please see Section IV for more information.

What kinds of programs and requests are eligible for funding?

Acceptable use of grant funds for Project Grants include:

• Student/postdoc/researcher salary and benefits
• Summer salary and teaching buyout for academics
• Support for specific projects during sabbaticals
• Assistance in writing or publishing books or journal articles, including page charges
• Modest allowance for justifiable lab equipment, computers, and other research supplies
• Modest travel allowance
• Development of workshops, conferences, or lecture series for professionals in the relevant fields
• Overhead of at most 15% (Please note if this is an issue with your institution, or if your organization is not non-profit, you can contact FLI to learn about other organizations that can help administer an FLI grant for you.)

Subawards are discouraged in the case of Project Grants, but perfectly acceptable for Center Grants.

What is your policy on overhead?

The highest allowed overhead rate is 15%. (As mentioned before, if this is an issue with your institution, you can contact FLI to learn about other organizations that can help administer FLI grants.)

How will proposals be judged?

After screening of the Initial Proposal, applicants may be asked to submit a Full Proposal. All Full Proposals will undergo a competitive process of external and confidential expert peer review. An expert panel will evaluate and rank the reviews according to the criteria described in Section III of the RFP overview.

Will FLI provide feedback on initial proposals?

FLI will generally not provide significant feedback on initial Project Proposals, but is likely to provide significant feedback on initial Center Proposals. Please keep in mind that however positive FLI may be about a proposal at any stage, it may still be turned down for funding after peer review.

Can I submit multiple proposals?

We will consider multiple Initial Proposals from the same PI; however, we will invite at most one Full Proposal from each PI or closely associated group of applicants.

What if I am unable to submit my application electronically?

Only applications submitted through the form on our website are accepted. If you encounter problems, please contact FLI.

Is there a maximum amount of money for which we can apply?

No. You may apply for as much money as you think is necessary to achieve your goals. However, you should carefully justify your proposed expenditure. Keep in mind that projects will be assessed on potential impact per dollar requested; an inappropriately high budget may harm the proposal’s prospects, effectively pricing it out of the market. Referees are authorized to suggest budget adjustments. As mentioned in the RFP overview, there may be an opportunity to apply for greater follow-up funding.

What will an average award be?

We expect that Project awards will typically be in the range of $100,000-$500,000 total over the life of the award (usually two to three years). We expect that Center awards will be larger, of order $500,000-$1,500,000.

What are the reporting requirements?

Grantees will be asked to submit a progress report (if a multi-year Grantee) and/or annual report consisting of narrative and financial reports. Renewal of multi-year grants will be contingent on satisfactory demonstration in these reports that the supported research is progressing appropriately, and continues to be consistent with the spirit of the original proposal. (see below question regarding renewal.)

How are multi-year grants renewed?

This program has been formulated to maximize impact by re-allocating (and potentially adding) resources during each year of the grant program. Decisions regarding the renewal of multi-year grants will be made by a review committee on the basis of the annual progress report. This report is not pro-forma. The committee is likely to recommend that some grants not be renewed, some be renewed at reduced level, some renewed at the same level, and that some be offered the opportunity for increased funding in later years.

What are the qualifications for a Principal Investigator?

A Principal Investigator can be anyone — there are no qualification requirements (though qualifications will be taken into account during the review process). Lacking conventional academic credentials or publications does *not* disqualify a P.I. We encourage applications from industry and independent researchers. Please list any relevant experience or achievements in the attached resume/CV.

As noted above, Principal Investigators need not even be affiliated with a university or non-profit. If a PI is affiliated with an academic institution, then their Principal Investigator status must be allowed by their institution. Should they be invited to submit a Full Proposal, they must obtain co-signatures on the proposal from the department head, as well as a department host with a post exceeding the duration of the grant.

My colleague(s) and I would like to apply as co-PIs. Can we do this?

Yes. For administrative purposes, however, please select a primary contact for the life of the award. The primary contact, which must be a Principal Investigator, will be the reference for your application(s) and all future correspondence, documents, etc.

Will the grants pay for laboratory or computational expenses?

Yes, however due to budgetary limitations FLI cannot fund capital-intensive equipment or computing facilities. Also, such expenses must be clearly required by the proposed research.

I have a proposal for my usual, relatively mainstream AI research program that I may be able to repackage as an appropriate proposal for this FLI program. Sound OK?

FLI is very sensitive to the problem of “fishing for money”—that is, the re-casting of an existing research program to make it appear to fit the overall thematic nature of this Request For Proposals. Such proposals will not be funded, nor renewed if erroneously funded initially.

Do proposals have to be as long as possible?

Please note that the page limit (15 pages for project proposals and 20 for center proposals) is an *upper limit*, not a lower limit.
You should simply write as much as you feel that you need in order to explain your proposal in sufficient detail for the review panel to understand it properly.

What are the “referees” in the instructions?

If there are specific reviewers whom you feel are particularly qualified to evaluate your proposal, please feel free to list them (this is completely optional)

Who are FLI’s reviewers?

FLI follows the standard practice of protecting the identities of our external reviewers and selecting them based on expertise in the relevant research areas. For example, the external reviewers in the first-round of this RFP were highly qualified experts in AI, law and economics, mostly professors and also some industry experts.