Fund Rules
1. Introduction
Project Catalyst is a growth engine and a grants program for the Cardano blockchain ecosystem (“Cardano”) that has funding rounds every few months, with a set amount of funds ready to allocate to ideas. When the Catalyst App opens to accept submissions, members of the Cardano community (referred to in these rules as “the community”) submit proposals in response to categories published on the Project Catalyst platform. The community votes and funding is allocated to winning projects to bring the projects to life. For Fund15, the following categories are available for proposal submissions:
Cardano Open: Ecosystem
Cardano Use Cases: Prototype & Launch
Cardano Partners: Tier-1 Enterprise Integrations
Midnight: Compact DApps
Each of these categories have their own relevant guidelines and regulations that go beyond general Fund Rules. Full relevant detailed briefs can be found on the Catalyst website here.
Purpose of this document
These Catalyst Fund Rules (“Rules”) reflect the mission of Project Catalyst to benefit the Cardano ecosystem, learning from previous funding rounds of what works and what could be improved.
These Rules apply to (a) each individual or entity participating in a project proposal, whether as an applicant or project participant (collectively “Project Participants”) and (b) other participants in Project Catalyst, including Community Reviewers, Community Moderators, and Milestone Reviewers (together with the Project Participants, “Catalyst Participants”).
By submitting a proposal, Catalyst Participants agree that these Rules form part of and are to be read together with the Project Catalyst Terms and Conditions between the applicant and Catalyst FC, the grantor of Project Catalyst funds, administered by IOG Singapore Pte. Ltd. as the Fund Operator. The Catalyst Fund Terms and Conditions set out the binding contractual terms governing funding, payment, suspension, termination, and liability. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between these Rules and the Catalyst Fund Terms and Conditions, the Catalyst Fund Terms and Conditions shall prevail.
All Catalyst Participants must comply at all times with these Rules and any additional terms and general guidance made available by the Fund Operator of Fund15. Any breach of the Project Catalyst Terms and Conditions, including these Rules, will be treated seriously and may result in suspension or termination of funding and/or loss of eligibility to participate in future Catalyst funding rounds.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please see Section 15 for category-specific deviations from these Rules (which may include, without limitation, different duration, budget and approval requirements or processes).
Eligibility criteria - who can apply for funding?
Anyone with an idea that positively impacts the Cardano ecosystem can and may submit a proposal on the Project Catalyst platform, subject to the conditions set out in these Fund Rules.
All Project Participants must be aged 18 or over and will need to complete onboarding requirements, including an identity verification process.
(i) Proposal Submission Limits
Applicants may only submit a maximum of 2 Catalyst proposals across all categories in any one funding round.
If an individual or entity applicant submits more than 2 proposal submissions, only the first 2 published entries will be eligible for participation. Project Participants contributing to proposals in any capacity (e.g., as a subcontractor) shall also be limited to submitting no more than 2 proposals per funding round.
All Project Participants must accurately disclose their roles and scope of services across any submitted proposals, even if they are not the applicant, such as an implementer, vendor, service provider, etc. Proposals or Project Participants that fail to disclose information accurately may be disqualified at any point of the Catalyst process.
(ii) Eligibility Conditions
A proposal will be deemed ineligible if, at the time of being marked as a final submission, the Project Participants meet any of the following conditions:
Incomplete legacy projects: The Project Participants have at least one active project in the delivery phase (including any period spent in extended onboarding) for over 12 months and remains incomplete. To find out how long the project has been in this phase, look for its designated "start date." You can find this date in the header of that project's "milestone module summary."
Lack of recent progress: The Project Participants failed to submit and get approval for at least two Proofs of Achievements (PoAs) within the last 7 months*.
Significant delays: The Project Participants have one or more active Catalyst-funded projects that is more than 90 days behind schedule under the approved Statement of Milestones unless a valid reason has been communicated to and accepted by the Fund Operator.
Over-commitment: The Project Participants have more than 6 concurrent projects active at the time of submission.
Incomplete or untruthful self-assessment check-list: The proposal or any accompanying documentation (including any self-assessment checklist submitted with the application) is incomplete, inaccurate or misleading.
Failure to disclose: The Project Participants have not accurately or publicly disclosed all involvements in any active Catalyst projects in their application form for any individuals connected to the project.
Circumvention: The Project Participants have submitted a proposal under a different entity or individual in an attempt to circumvent these guidelines.
If it is determined that Project Participants do not meet any of the eligibility criteria at the time of submission, their proposal may be subject to immediate grant cancellation, regardless of its current stage. This includes proposals that have already been approved for funding by the community.
(iii) Rules for All Active Grants. These rules apply to all projects with an active grant, regardless of whether they are applying for new funding:
Automatic cancellation risk: An active grant risks immediate cancellation if the project is more than 90 days behind schedule based on its Statement of Milestones, and the proposal team (or individual) has not proactively sought and received an approved Change Request.
Important note on Change Requests: The approval of a Change Request is not automatic. It is granted solely at the discretion of the Fund Operator based on the justification provided.
*The Catalyst program aims to help active and previously funded proposers remain eligible and will review submitted PoAs and Change Requests as efficiently as possible. However, to ensure fairness, only PoAs and Change Requests fully approved before a new application is submitted will count toward eligibility. Processing times cannot be guaranteed, as they depend on the nature and complexity of the work. Change Requests are intended only for justified adjustments to deliverables or timelines and cannot be used to bypass eligibility criteria.
Funding: What types of projects are funded by Project Catalyst?
Project Catalyst is aimed at helping a wide range of individuals, groups, or legal entities to grow by funding the best ideas that have the potential to positively impact the Cardano ecosystem.
Proposals must:
Be complete and accurate at the time of proposal submission;
Be for the betterment of the Cardano ecosystem;
Be ready to start the project once the Fund results are published;
Have an expected completion date at 2 to 12 months from award;
Identify at least 2 project milestones plus the final one including Project Close Out Report and Video;
Be willing to publicly share evidence of achievement and outcomes with the community; and
If declaring the project is open source in the proposal submission form, the project should be open source-available throughout the entire lifecycle of the project with a declared open-source repository with an appropriate license.
Provide a clear budget. This budget must be for future activities only and allocated exclusively to the project's execution.
Depending on the category, project funding can be requested for various stages of technical innovation and software development, from feasibility studies through to developing and testing prototypes or fully fledged features. Proposals can be to develop a brand new product, service, technology-enabled process, or to take an existing technology product or service and further develop it beyond existing capabilities. Project Catalyst funding requests can also be focused on ecosystem and community-building activities, events, content, or social endeavors that help to onboard and educate new users about Cardano.
The key requirements for all requests for funding proposals is that the project is for the broad benefit of the Cardano ecosystem and there are well-defined deliverables and outcomes for each project that can be measurably verified by the community.
Examples of projects that will not be funded by Catalyst include (list is non exhaustive):
Projects that do not benefit Cardano in a way that aligns with Catalyst’s mission and scope;
Projects that are not legal within the jurisdiction where the work is taking place or that would breach applicable sanctions, anti-money laundering (AML), or other regulatory requirements;
Projects intending to use Catalyst funding for speculative or investment activities, such as purchasing financial or digital assets, trading, lending or providing token liquidity and similar activities;
Funds cannot be used to establish local treasuries or similar collective funding pools (for example community-managed re-granting structures);
Projects intending to use the funds to offer a grant as funding for 3rd parties (as opposed to procuring goods or services under a project contract);
Projects intending to use funds for brick and mortar business activities that do not deliver a measurable benefit to the Cardano ecosystem. For example, a restaurant project using funds to pay for chefs instead of using funds for Cardano brand marketing. In this case, the proposal should demonstrate additional resources are available to cover these types of expenses; and
Projects intending to use funds to incentivise users through ada or other giveaways, airdrops or prize schemes, unless specifically approved to be delivered as part of an authorised hackathon or bounty program; and
Projects seeking retroactive funding in part or full, unless specifically permitted by the category brief guidelines.
What can funding be used for?
Funding must be used exclusively for the development and implementation of Project Participants’ proposed projects. The following is a list of examples of what Catalyst funding may be used for:
Labour & subcontracting costs (i.e., staffing to deliver the project)
Overhead costs (typically provision of computers, desks, office space, IT infrastructure and software services)
Materials costs (costs of materials to be used directly on project are eligible costs, purchased from third parties)
Hackathon prizes*
Bounty rewards*
Travel costs
Venue hire and production costs
Training costs
Market assessment and business intelligence
Licensing in technologies
* Funds allocated for hackathon prizes or bounty rewards can only be paid after delivery once the milestone proof of achievement is satisfied.
How much funding can I ask for?
Project Participants may only request funding in the currency listed in the applicable category brief.
There is a minimum and a maximum amount of funding that can be requested in a single Catalyst proposal. These are outlined below for each category:
Funding Amount range per proposal:
Cardano Open: Ecosystem
From $ADA 15,000 to $ADA 60,000
Cardano Use Cases: Prototype & Launch
From $ADA 15,000 to $ADA 200,000
Cardano Partners: Tier-1 Enterprise Integrations
From $ADA 250,000 to $ADA 750,000
Midnight: Compact DApps
From $USDM 2,500 to $USDM 10,000
Minimum and maximum funding caps help drive the predictability of how many projects will likely be funded in a given round and support the estimation of ongoing costs for community-reviewers to participate in project accountability management, where the pool of community reviewers help to verify that milestones are being achieved and are rewarded for their contributions.
Introducing minimum and maximum funding levels and maximum project length also helps to avoid scenarios whereby very large sums are approved without voters' confidence and truly understanding the feasibility of highly complex, multi-year technical projects, or in cases where proposals request very small amounts of funding which cannot deliver genuine value to the Cardano ecosystem.
Funding is provided by way of a grant only. Proposals that request alternative funding arrangements, such as loans, will be disqualified.
How long can my project be?
Projects must be capable of completing all milestones within 12 months from project award.
What are the key steps of the funding process?
The funding cycle involves the following stages:
Innovation submission: Project Participants submit initial proposals on the Catalyst App in compliance with category briefs listed there for each category. Community members share ideas and insights on Catalyst Platform to help refine the proposals.
Community Review: Community Reviewers provide opinions about the submitted proposals and rate them against the criteria which can be found in the Community Review guidelines (which will be made available ahead of the Community Review stage) on Catalyst Gitbook.
Moderation: Community reviews are checked by moderators to make a determination whether reviews that were flagged by the Catalyst scripts should be published or discarded altogether.
Voting: Community members vote using the Project Catalyst voting app. Votes are weighted based on voters' ada token holding.
Results: Votes are tallied and the results published in a Fund Results guide.
Onboarding: Approved projects will undergo an onboarding procedure which includes, without limitation, creating a finalized Statement of Milestones schedule.
Funding: Projects receive funding along with further guidance. Approved Project Participants are required to provide regular proofs of achievement to the community, which ensures funded projects are accountable to their voters. See Section 17 for more details.
9. How do I submit a proposal?
Project Catalyst relies on the ingenuity of a global network of participants. Proposals may be submitted by completing the Proposal Submission Form available here. Proposals may be initially submitted in draft form and finalized at any time before the final submission deadline (which deadline will be published here). Proposals that are not complete by the final submission deadline will be archived and will not be submitted to the community for voting. Kindly submit drafts once you are ready to proceed with enough context for the community to be able to provide tangible feedback. Proposal submissions with insufficient detail or information added across all fields are at risk of being archived at any time without notice.
What are the proposal requirements?
Proposals must be submitted via the Catalyst Proposal Submission Platform by completing the proposal Submission Form and demonstrating the proposed idea’s ‘impact’, ‘feasibility/capability’, and ‘value for money’. URLs and images can be embedded as part of the proposal submission.
Submitting the same proposal into multiple challenges or categories in the same funding round is not permitted and only the most recent submission will be considered. A project proposal can only be funded to deliver the project once. If a duplicate proposal or a separate proposal with the same deliverables is awarded, the Fund Operator will terminate one of the projects in its entirety, together with all future payments for that project with immediate effect. Please see the Suspension and Termination of Catalyst Grants policy here for further details.
Project Participants must ensure that their proposal and all other materials relating to the project do not infringe any intellectual property rights and do not contain any confidential or proprietary information.
What is the review process?
One of the roles of the Fund Operator is to ensure that these rules are complied with by all Project Participants. If proposals are submitted to the wrong category or evaluated to be in breach of these Fund Rules, the Fund Operator will require Project Participants to resubmit their proposal to an alternative category or to withdraw their proposal, before Community Review ends. Project Participants are strongly advised to match their proposals to suitable challenge briefs as much as possible or to seek guidance to avoid any surprises.
Proposals are also reviewed by Community Reviewers. These are members of the community who volunteer to provide their opinion and feedback on proposals in exchange for a fee. Community Reviewers play an important role in the Catalyst funding process by providing information which can be used by voters to inform their voting decisions. Community Reviewers also offer feedback to Project Participants by providing rationale for their scores. In order to participate as a Community Reviewer in Project Catalyst, identity verification is a requirement.
Community Reviewers will read a proposal and assign it a score between 1 and 5 for each of the 3 criteria (impact, feasibility/capability, and value for money). The individual scores across the three criteria will give an overall score for the proposal.
For each of the three criteria, Community Reviewers are required to give their opinion and rationale in English to explain the score that was given and to demonstrate the reason for doing so. A proposal may receive a low score for various reasons including if the submission form is not complete, the Project Participant cannot be clearly identified or if the project does not fulfill these rules.
Community Reviewers should consider and provide feedback on the extent that proposals meet criteria on their own merits. Community Reviewers should only provide their own opinion. Their review should not be the work of others or an AI-agent acting on their behalf. If a Community Moderator believes that a Community Reviewer’s reasoning does not correspond with the score given, the review will likely be discarded during the Community Review stage (as described in the following section).
What is the role of Community Moderators?
The Fund Operator runs a community assisted moderation bounty program that helps identify non-compliant proposals before they proceed towards the voting stage. Proposals that are deemed in breach of Fund Rules and/or Terms & Conditions can be removed from the Fund at any time. We will endeavor to provide, but do not guarantee, notice of such removal. Here is a sample guideline that highlights the process at a high level. Fund15 guidelines will be made available before the Community Review stage begins.
The Fund Operator also uses automated scripts to identify the following issues for review by Community Moderators:
A similarity script will be run looking for similarly worded reviews in the current fund and across previous funds. Generic reviews which do not address specific aspects of a proposal will be flagged and potentially discarded.
A length check will be completed. Reviews containing less than 150 characters for each individual criterion or less than 450 characters in total per review as a whole will be flagged and potentially discarded.
A plagiarism script will be run looking for similarly worded content from the internet. Reviews which do not address specific aspects of a proposal will be flagged and potentially discarded.
An artificial agent script will be run by the Fund Operator looking for content that is produced by an AI bot or agent. These reviews will be flagged and potentially discarded.
Reviews that display copy/pasting of templates without thoughtful contribution of value specific to the proposal will be flagged for review and potentially discarded.
Reviews that are flagged by the automated scripts are referred to Community Moderators for further assessment. Community Moderators may discard reviews which are not authentic and which do not comply with these rules and the Community Reviewers Guide.
An additional ‘spot check’ will be performed by Community Moderators, who will be provided with a small number of reviews made by community reviewers that were not flagged by scripts. This helps minimize potentially adverse behaviors, only discarding reviews which do not comply with these rules and the guidelines provided in the Community Reviewers Guidelines (these Guidelines will be published ahead of the Community Review stage).
The vast majority of reviews are people’s genuine opinions and these will be included in the voting process to help inform voters about the opinions of Community Reviewers. If a review is flagged, there is likely a reason attributed to the flag and information about which reviews and reviewers were flagged and discounted will be published in the Catalyst Gitbook.
Appeals from Community Review Moderators (experienced reviewers) are not currently implemented. In order to participate as a Community Review or Community Moderator in Project Catalyst, identity verification is required.
How does voting work?
Voting in the current Fund will be a Yes/Abstain mechanic for all categories.
In Fund14, Project Catalyst introduced Generalised Quadratic Voting (GQV) as a proof of concept applied exclusively at the tallying stage. GQV is a tallying method. Each voter’s total stake will be cube-rooted and tallied with the other cube-rooted stakes by other voters. This mathematical operation makes the difference between the powerful voters and less powerful voters smaller, leading to a more egalitarian decision making.
This phased approach preserves the existing vote-casting process while enabling the community and researchers to compare traditional linear voting outcomes with quadratic results. The goal is to assess GQV’s potential to more fairly represent collective preferences by reducing disproportionate influence from large ADA holders (“whale behaviour”). In essence, GQV flattens the distribution of voting power, making the overall outcome more decentralized and aligned with a broader community consensus.
In Fund15, GQV will be implemented alongside a change to the approval threshold. Whereas in previous Catalyst funding rounds, approval was gained from receiving at least 1% of total registered stake, in Fund15 approval will be gained from receiving at least 2% of total active stake. This change means approval thresholds are dynamic based on voters’ active, rather than passive, participation.
Technically, this isolated implementation aligns with Catalyst’s evolving modular voting architecture and leverages secure infrastructure to ensure scalability and integrity. Please refer to Fund Operating Parameters published on docs.projectcatalyst.io for more details.
Proposals are ranked by the flat number of ‘Yes’ votes received during the tally from the community (adjusted with QVC) and funded one by one until that category budget is exhausted. If the amount requested by a proposal is larger than the remaining amount of funding in that category, it is skipped.
Any leftover funds will be used to fund the combined highest ranking projects across two categories only: Cardano Use Cases: Prototype & Launch and Cardano Open: Ecosystem.
Leftover funding logic does not include the Midnight category funds or projects.
Only projects from proposers who do not already have an approved project in the current funding round will be considered. If an approved Project Participant has already one or more projects approved for funding in the current Fund, no additional projects will be awarded leftover funding to the Project Participant. This approach is intended to allow a broader and more diverse distribution of funding among the Cardano community.
Who can vote on proposals?
On completion of the Community Review Stage, the community of ada holders are given the opportunity to vote for their favorite proposals to receive Catalyst funding. Proposals will only receive funding if they garner sufficient votes from the community. Any ada holder with a minimum of ₳25 can vote on a proposal by downloading the voting app from here. Learn more about voting via Catalyst gitbook here.
Where are voting results published?
Results of the community vote are published by the Catalyst team via projectcatalyst.io web once the tally stage is complete.
Onboarding of approved proposals
If a proposal for funding is approved, then the applicable Project Participants will be notified by email of the steps to be completed as part of the onboarding procedure. The onboarding procedure is intended to confirm a Project Participant’s compliance with these rules and any additional terms or specific conditions of the grant, in addition to these rules, that the Project Participant must follow.
Once the vote has concluded, during Project onboarding, Project Participants will also be required to submit a Statement of Milestones (SoM) that sets out the milestones and deliverables to be accomplished by the Project Participants during each stage of the project which will be reviewed and approved by Milestone Reviewers before funding is initiated. All proposals must include at least 2 milestones.
Project Participants must complete the onboarding process before the project can start. Failure to complete the onboarding procedure within 60 days of award notification may result in the grant being withdrawn.
Payments and Reporting
Upon completion of the onboarding process and verification of the Statement of Milestones, approved projects will receive an initial payment covering the first milestone. All funded projects will be required to adhere to the Statement of Milestones (SoM) set out in their proposal. Before funding for the next milestone is released, projects must provide evidence that the milestone for which they have already been paid has been achieved. This is known as Proof of Achievement (PoA). It is the responsibility of the lead Project Participant and funded-proposer’s team to submit Proof of Achievement to the community and the Catalyst team for verification and approval before funding for the next milestone is provided.
Each project will be required to submit a relevant report which documents that progress is being made on the project. The Catalyst team must be notified immediately if there are reasons why the project has paused or will not deliver what was voted for and approved by the community.
Failure to comply with reporting requirements to demonstrate adequate progress may result in funding being suspended or terminated.
Before the final payment is released, approved Project Participants must also provide a “Proof of Project” report and “Proof of Demonstration” video. Further details about the content and format of this documentation will be provided to each Project Participant during onboarding.
The Fund Operator and Catalyst FC aim to review SoMs, PoAs and general milestone submissions as efficiently as possible. However, review timelines may vary depending on the volume, complexity, and nature of community feedback.
Because the milestone review process relies on community input and validation, neither the Fund Operator nor Catalyst FC shall be liable for any delays, loss, or costs arising from extended review periods or related delays in payment release. Payments are conditional upon successful verification and approval of submitted milestones.
Project details, progress reports, and Proof of Achievements will be published on the Catalyst Website at www.projectcatalyst.io and will be publicly available.
Unspent and Excess Funds
There may be unspent or excess funds available from total budgeted funds for any given funding round. This may be the result of various reasons, including but not limited to parameter outcomes (e.g., difference between forecasted and actual budget allocation), cancellations/terminations, refunds, or failure to follow relevant procedures (e.g., during onboarding). Such events present an opportunity for efficient reallocation of available funding amounts where applicable to maximize the positive impact of the Catalyst program. In all other cases, the funds will be retained by Catalyst FC.
Fund15 Rules for the ‘Midnight’ Category
Fund15 is piloting a multi-treasury funding round. The following rule hierarchy applies to the "Midnight" category:
General Rules Apply: As a baseline, all rules listed in these Rules apply to the "Midnight" category.
Specific Rules Take Priority: The "Midnight" category also has its own category-specific rules. If any of these "Midnight" rules are at odds (in conflict) with these Rules, the "Midnight" category-specific rules take priority and override these Rules to the extent of the conflict. The Midnight-specific rules are listed in the category briefly directly. Review them in detail here.
Here are some important highlights of the Midnight-specific rules:
Project selection:
Community Recommendation: Cardano's ADA holders will vote on proposals through Project Catalyst to create a shortlist of recommended projects.
Final Selection: The Midnight Foundation will make the final funding decisions from the recommended list produced by the voting stage.
A 3-month timeline: The project delivery timeline can be a maximum of three months with three milestones each (one per month).
By submitting a proposal to the Midnight-specific category, Catalyst Participants agree that these Rules and the Midnight-specific rules form part of and are to be read together with the Project Catalyst Terms and Conditions - Midnight Compact DApp Submissions between the applicant and Midnight Foundation, the grantor of Project Catalyst funds for this category, administered by IOG Singapore Pte. Ltd. as the Fund Operator. The Project Catalyst Terms and Conditions - Midnight Compact DApp Submissions set out the binding contractual terms governing funding, payment, suspension, termination, and liability. The order of priority for any conflict or inconsistency between the foregoing terms is: (1) the Project Catalyst Terms and Conditions - Midnight Compact DApp Submissions, the latter shall prevail; (2) the Midnight-specific rules; and (3) these Rules.
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