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• March 2008: SSHRC denies Cluster funding again.

TaU Cluster again failed to receive funding in the SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Cluster Competition --a bitter pill to swallow after all the promissory notes. We put in what we thought was an even stronger application, with all the right language and having listened to all the advice we received. The external reviewers were again very positive, so it appears that we are just flying against the political wind of this granting agency. Consequently we are now actively seeking funding from other potential sources.

• March 2007: Cluster Competiton Result

We have received the very disappointing news that we were not successful in our application for a SSHRC Strategic Research Cluster Grant. Funding fell far below what SSHRC had wanted, and they were only able to fund 7 of 57 applications, a less than 12% success rate. We have been encouraged to apply again in a second competition in 2007, and in the meantime are trying to obtain interim funding that would allow us to continue our activities for another year, including a third Montreal TaU Workshop.

More details will be found in tau-related news as they become available.

• September 2006: TaU Cluster Competiton Announced!

SSHRC have finally announced the creation of a cluster competition You can read about it at the SSHRC web site:

• http://www.sshrc.ca/web/apply/program_descriptions/knowledge_cluster_e.asp

  The deadline for applications is 20 November, which may seem a long time from now, but the application process is quite cumbersome. Steve Savitt has just begun looking at the rather lengthy set of instructions for applicants, and will get back to TaUists with more information and, he suspects, some requests regarding forms that all associated with the cluster will be required to fill out.

The clusters will run for seven years and may be funded up to $300,000 per year. Only seven will be funded.

 

• January 2006: TaU Interim Funding Granted!

SSHRC has granted the TaU Cluster $25,000 in Interim Funding for 2006, to see us through until the Cluster Grant Competition proper takes place.

• November 2005: The lead story in December's Scientific American, "An Echo of Black Holes", by Thoedore Jacobson and Renaud Parentani (pp. 68-75), depends heavily (and explicitly) on work by tau co-investigator William Unruh (Physics, UBC). His (1981) analogy between propagation of a sound wave in a moving fluid and that of light in a curved spacetime forms the basis of the authors' model of spacetime as an atomistic fluid aether.

• On September 8th, 2005 we learned offically that SSHRC had made good their promise not to leave the winners of the Cluster Design Grants competition blowing in the wind, with their announcement of a competition for Strategic Research Interim Grants. Here's their description of the program in a pdf file.
• These will be for up to $25,000 for 1 year's duration, and we will hear results in December.
• We have filed an application (due date October 7th), consisting in the original concept paper, the cv's of the principal investigators, and a 2-page supplement.

The main items of the proposal are as follows:

• -- a Canadian Workshop either immediately before or immediately after the 2nd Ontology of Spacetime conference in Montreal in June, 2006.
• -- a Public Lecture at the time of our workshop. Since, as we understand, there will also be a public lecture or lectures concurrent with the Ontology of Spacetime conference, we may be able to piggy-back some of our publicity efforts on top of theirs. In addition, if there is a volume of the proceedings of the second Montreal meeting, as there was for the first meeting, we have a commitment that papers from or resulting from our workshop will be considered for inclusion.
• -- sponsoring a TaU lecturer. Ideally, this would be one of our international associates, who would travel to Canada and present both public lectures and seminars on their recent research across Canada.
• -- improving and expanding our web site. We propose adding a facility for interactive discussion as well as expanding the information on the site about our own activities (like the TaU lectures), our members' activities, and other relevant research. This would involve the hiring of someone with technical expertise to assist in web design, including the setting up of a private blog for time research. We may eventually add a public forum where recent research could be posted and discussed.
• -- a possible joint workshop and public lecture with the Origins Institute, which is located at McMaster University. The Origins Institute conducts interdisciplinary research on origins, including the origins of spacetime.

   

• To supplement funding for these events, we have commitments of $5000 each from McMaster (Ric Arthur) and Western (Wayne Myrvold), a little money left over from the design grant, and UBC has given some direct support to Steve Savitt.

©Richard T. W. Arthur, 2005-08