Join | Ic² Research Institute

Working with the institute

By application

Research membership

This is the one that makes you a member. It is for people who will contribute to the work itself: conducting research, or providing the professional support that makes research possible.

Who it is for: Researchers and professionals who want to contribute.
What it takes: An application, read by a person. Approval is required.
What you get: An account in the member workspace, and a part in the research.

See what is involved

Following the research

Neither of these is membership, and neither asks anything of you. They exist because work done in public needs a public: people who see a prediction registered, and then see what the data says. Predictions are dated and public before the data that tests them exists, so there is nothing to report but how close they came.

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The Quest newsletter

Science reaches most people as separate episodes, months apart, with the connecting tissue left out. You are expected to supply the context yourself, and the one place that reliably supplies it for you is a classroom written for someone much younger.

The Quest supplies it. It follows a single theory, with grand unification as the target, and that one lens is what makes separate tests add up: what is known, where the limits are, and what gets examined next. Every issue opens with where the story stands, so you can start at any point and not be behind.

Who it is for: Anyone who wants to follow the research without a physics post.
What is in an issue: Where the story stands, the one thing that moved since last time, a feature on how science actually works, the people on the road, readers' questions answered, the dates we are waiting on, and a numbered ledger of what we have learned that carries on from issue to issue.
How often: Every two months, and a special issue within a week of something significant.
What it takes: An email address. No account, no approval.
Where it fits: A readership rather than a membership. Nothing is asked of you in return, though readers' questions and contributions run in the newsletter under their own names.

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Community discussion

An open forum for asking questions, arguing with the work and talking to other readers. No application and no vetting: anyone who signs up can post.

Who it is for: Anyone who wants to talk about the research.
What it takes: A sign-up, once it exists.
Where it fits: Open to everyone, with its own sign-up when it arrives.

We would rather say this plainly than give you a button that goes nowhere. Until it opens, the newsletter carries the updates and questions by email are answered.

Member means something specific here

A member is someone working with the institute: they have applied, been approved, and hold an account in the member workspace. Subscribing to the newsletter is a different thing rather than a lesser one, and so is joining the forum. All three keep separate accounts, and signing up for one does not create the others.

We are strict about the word because membership carries a claim. Members appear on the Members page under their own names, and what they publish goes out with the institute's name on it.

If you want to follow what happens next, the newsletter is the right place to do it, and you can leave whenever you like.

Looking for something else?

Helping with testing: volunteers apply through the Members page.
Supporting the work: see Contribute.
How a result travels: the Quest Map follows an idea from first thought to published paper.
Anything else: contact us.