The research proposal that I submitted together with Klaas Chielens on "Evolutionary Aspects of Language Spreading: A Quantitative Research of Memetic Selection Processes in the Distribution of Virus Hoaxes" <http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Project-Klaas.pdf> has been accepted by the OZR. This means that Klaas will get a 4 year PhD scholarship to work with me, starting on Oct. 1. Thus, Klaas can from now on be considered as a full-time ECCO researcher!

Unfortunately, two other proposals that I submitted with another ECCO member, Andreas Loengarov, were not accepted, although his request to be an FWO aspirant almost succeeded (the last person in line before him, according to the VUB ranking, still got it). However, I am still hoping to find some other funding to support his research, and that of others (including a submitted GOA proposal that seems to have impressed at least one referee, a potential sponsoring for Principia Cybernetica work from the US, and two European projects together with partners in Germany, to be submitted to the NESTand FET programs). Andreas himself has also applied to PhD programs in Britain.

It seems ECCO is close to the critical mass of sufficient funding and full-time people to continue growing just on its own momentum: the more people there are to do research, publish papers, develop websites, make contacts, submit proposals, organize projects, etc. the easier it will become to get more funding and to attract further people... So, let's keep the (snow)ball rolling ;-)
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Francis Heylighen
Center "Leo Apostel"
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html

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