However, I do find it interesting that there is so much debate about accepting funding from Templeton when so much existing science funding comes from the military, which is arguably even more morally questionable. Templeton have never invested a lot of effort in killing people as far as I am aware. If you are a quantum information person, and you have ever been to a conference, then it is almost certain that you have already benefited from military funding in one form or another, so I don’t think anyone has the moral high ground here.

At the end of the day, you don’t have to completely agree with the aims of a funding organisation in order to accept money from them. If you did make that a requirement, then you would quickly find that there was virtually no money available to you, particularly if you are interested in science that is a little way off the mainstream. Provided the organisation allows you the freedom to pursue your research in the way you see fit, and doesn’t seek to exploit it in a way that you find morally questionable, then you should have no qualms about it in my opinion. Also, as you say, it diverts funding from any of their other activities that you may have more problems with.

Of course, there is always the argument that you are somehow lending credibility to an organisation by accepting money from them. For example, they may wish to put your name on their website and advertise the grant as one of the myriad wonderful things they are doing. That does give me some pause for thought, but in this case I feel that fqxi is a sufficiently independent entity from Templeton, and I am strongly supportive of the aims of fqxi, so it isn’t really an issue. I think most people have enough sense to see through this sort of thing in any case.