How to Submit a Proposal
We are currently soliciting proposals for programs to run in calendar year 2015 (Spring or Fall), 
or possibly in Fall 2014. (Programs for calendar years 2013 and 2014 are already decided, except 
for one remaining slot in Fall 2014.) 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 early January, 2013. To ensure that your proposal 
is considered at this meeting, it needs to be received no later than December 15, 2012. 

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). 
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. 

Richard Karp, Director 
Alistair Sinclair, Associate Director 
Christos Papadimitriou, Senior Scientist