Proposal submission Guide

This page guides proposers in submitting their proposal in ideascale

Submission Form Sections

These are the sections of the form you will in Ideascale to submit your proposal

GENERAL

GENERAL

QUESTION	GUIDANCE	REQUIRED / OPTIONAL
Proposal title	Voters can see this in the voting app even without opening your proposal, so it is important. It should say very directly what your proposal is about.	Required
Name and Surname of Main Applicant	Please provide the name, surname of the Main Applicant. The Main Applicant is the individual responsible for the project and the person authorised to act on behalf of other Applicants (where applicable).	Required
Email address of Main Applicant	Please provide the email address of the Main Applicant. The Main Applicant is the individual responsible for the project and the person authorised to act on behalf of other Applicants (where applicable).	Required
Additional Applicants	Please list any persons who are submitting the proposal jointly with the Main Applicant. Make sure you have confirmed with these individuals / accounts before adding them here for their approval and awareness.	Required
Requested funds in ADA	Minimum ₳15,000 for any proposal Maximum ₳75,000 for proposals made to Catalyst Open, review the challenge brief for other challenges carefully to see if any additional guardrails around funding requests are not part of it.	Required
Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)	Maximum 12 months length. The scope of your funding request and this project is expected to produce the deliverables you specify in the proposal in between 2-12 months. If you believe your project will take longer than 12 months then consider reducing the scope of the project so that the scope is achievable within 12 months.	Required
Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.	Tick this box to remind readers that your proposal has been translated, and that they should be tolerant of any language imperfections. You can either link a document with your proposal in its original language OR provide your response in your native language after the English language in each question if you wish.	Required
What is the problem you want to solve? (200-character limit including spaces)	Ensure you say what is a well defined problem. What is the core issue that you hope to fix? Remember: the reader might not recognise the problem you can see, unless you state it. This answer will be displayed on the Catalyst voting app, so voters will see it even if they don't open your proposal to read it in detail.	Required
Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)	Focus on what you are going to do, or make, or change, to solve the problem. So not 'There should be a way to....' but 'We will make a...' Make sure it's clear how the solution addresses the specific problem you have identified - connect the 'why' and the 'how'. This answer will be displayed on the Catalyst voting app, so voters will see it even if they do not open your proposal and read it in detail.	Required
Website/ GitHub repository, or any other relevant link	Here, you could include links to your website or that of a partner organisation, and/or a link to any whitepaper or other publication you have written about your proposal. But please note, this is extra information, which voters and Community Reviewers might choose not to read. You should not overlook to include any of the questions in this form because the answers are in your website or your whitepaper.
Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?	YES/NO	Required
If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” in this field.	Here you should list any dependencies and pre-requisites that you may need to make your project successful. These are usually external factors that may cause delay because a project has less control over them such as 3rd party suppliers, external resources, third party software etc. In case of third party software, please indicate whether you have the necessary licences and permission to use such software.	Required
Will your project outputs be fully Open Source?	YES/NO	Required
If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.” in this field.	Please specify here any part of your project output that will NOT be open source with an explanation of why this is the case. It is important that the Community has a clear understanding and expectation of the allocation of rights over the project outcome as well as processes.	Required

METADATA

METADATA

QUESTION	GUIDANCE	REQUIRED / OPTIONAL
Category of Proposal	Options: Products, services, or integrations; Community and expansion Cardano infrastructure	Required
Subcategories	Products, services, or integrations: DAO dApp Data tools DeFi Exchange Explorers Gaming Identity Solutions NFTs RealFi Wallet Other Community and expansion: Cardano Ambassadors Education Events Incubation Regional Expansion Standards and Regulation Translation Other Cardano Infrastructure: Data, Explorers, Trackers Dev Ecosystem Collaboration Dev Team Dev Tools, API, Library SPOs Other	Required
Tags	These are keywords that can help identify and categorise projects.
Co-proposers	Please list any persons who are submitting the proposal jointly with the proposer. Make sure you have confirmed with these individuals / accounts before adding them here for their approval and awareness. In case of more than one proposer, please identify the lead person who is authorised to act on behalf of other co-proposers.	Required
SDG rating	This field is optional. You can use the SDG Proposer Tool to help you include any relevant UN SDGs, sub goals and/or KPIs in your proposal.

IMPACT

IMPACT

QUESTION	GUIDANCE	REQUIRED / OPTIONAL
Please describe your proposed solution.	How you write this section will depend on what type of proposal you are writing. You might want to include detail on how you perceive the problem you are solving; your reasons for approaching it in the way that you have; who your project will engage; how you will demonstrate or prove your impact Explain what is unique about your solution, who will benefit, and why this should be important to Cardano	Required
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem	Read the Challenge thoroughly, and explain which of its aims are addressed by your proposal. What impact will this project have for Cardano besides funding the project team and what value does it bring to the Cardano ecosystem? Please qualify or quantify the impact you believe your project will bring to the Cardano ecosystem. Please consider if for example your project will bring people to the community, will enable the ecosystem to get stronger or will solve a key problem or issue. Be realistic both in terms of how many users or usage/transactions you will achieve within a reasonable timeframe during or shortly after the project completes.	Required
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?	Describe, and where possible measure, the benefits from the project to the Cardano ecosystem and why the measures are realistic in your opinion. How will the innovation affect Cardano’s productivity and growth, in both the short and the long term? The metrics you measure do not necessarily have to be KPIs, which are numerical performance indicators - you can also measure qualitative things, such as the opinions of your users.	Required
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?	What are your plans to spread the project’s outputs over a reasonable timescale? How and with whom will you share the outputs/impact and opportunities that will occur as a result of your completed project? How do you expect to use the results generated from the project in further research and development activities?	Required

FEASIBILITY

CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY

QUESTION	GUIDANCE	REQUIRED / OPTIONAL
What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?	Please describe your existing capabilities that demonstrate how and why you believe you’re best suited to deliver this project? Please include your steps or processes which demonstrate that you can be trusted to manage funds properly.	Required
What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?	Please state the proposed objectives, or goals for your project. Project goals are the overall objectives that you are trying to achieve with your project. Choose goals and objectives relevant to your use-case and project, and provide details on how you will validate if your goals have been achieved. These objectives could be for example related to a purpose to be achieved, a strategic position or a specific result to be obtained, a product to be produced or a service to be performed. Some goals can be quantified, like increasing month on month transactions by 30% on the previous figure. However, some goals are qualitative and difficult to put into numerical terms; for example, improving user experience which we can’t easily and conveniently assign a numeric value. If your goals cannot be quantified numerically, please be sure to include a clear description of how you believe the goals of your project should be measured and considered. If your project is technical, software development, or highly experimental in nature please provide information about how you intend to implement your approach.	Required
Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.	Show the order of your milestones including which key activities will be done and provide a timeline of how long each milestone of your project will take as well as each success or acceptance criteria for your milestones. Also give an indication of the projected cost to achieve each milestone (please note that a more detailed budget can be described in the next questions). How will your project be implemented? Please provide a plan for your project with details on the steps and overall project management approach. A milestone is a key event or action in a project or your business journey that marks a significant stage of progress. Milestones aren’t some random stretch goals that you’re unlikely to reach. They’re key points throughout a project that prove a certain amount of progress and are relatively small steps towards achieving a bigger objective or goal. Please be aware that funded proposals will be required to submit a Statement of Milestones confirming the milestones detailed in their proposal.	Required
Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.	What will you produce? Please provide details about the deliverables, documentation, and outputs you intend to produce for each milestone. What will happen as a result of your work and what are the intended outcomes that you expect to achieve? What will you measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure it?	Required

VALUE FOR MONEY

RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY

QUESTION	GUIDANCE	REQUIRED / OPTIONAL
Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.	Make sure every element mentioned in your plan is costed. It may be helpful to refer to your plan and timeline, list all the resources you will need at each stage, and what they cost. In this section please also provide a clear description of any third party product or service you will be using. For example this could be hardware, licences, professional service (legal, accounting, code audit etc) but does not need to include the use of contracted programmers and developers. The exact budget elements you include will depend on what type of work you are doing, and you might need to give less detail for a small, low-budget proposal. If the cost of the project will exceed the funding request, please provide information as to other sources of funding. Consider including budget elements for publicity / marketing / promotion / community engagement; project management; documentation; and reporting back to the community - most proposals need these, but many proposers forget to include them. Please note that it is the project team’s responsibility to manage the funds provided.	Required
Who is in the project team and what are their roles?	List your team, and state what aspect of the proposal’s work each person will undertake. You can include links (for example, to your team’s own websites and social media, their profiles on professional associations or LinkedIn, websites showing their previous work, or links to their previous work within Catalyst). Remember you can include information about people’s experience in their regular career, as well as their experience in the Cardano blockchain. If you are planning to recruit additional team members, please state what specific skills you will be looking for in the people you recruit, so readers can see that you understand what skills will be needed to complete the project. You are expected to have already engaged the relevant members of the organizations referenced so you understand if they are willing or have capacity to support the project. If you have not taken any steps to engage with your team yet, then it is likely that the resources will not be available if you are approved for funding and this can jeopardise the project before it has even begun. The Catalyst team cannot be helpful here, meaning you are expected to have understood the requirements and engaged the necessary people before the proposal is submitted. Have you engaged any one on any of the technical-group channels e.g. Discord or Telegram, or do you have a direct line of communications with the people and resources required? Please note: Catalyst funding is not anonymous and some level of ‘proof of life’ verifications will take place before initial funding is released. Also remember that your proposal will be publicly available so make sure to obtain any consent required before including confidential or third party information.	Required
How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?	Use the response to address this and explain the costs previously described, particularly if they are high. It may be helpful to include brief information on how you have decided on the costs of the project. For instance, can you justify with supporting evidence that costs are based on average wage in your country; or typical freelance rates in your industry; something else that helps to support how the project represents value for money?	Required

IMPORTANT NOTE

IMPORTANT NOTE

QUESTION	GUIDANCE	REQUIRED / OPTIONAL
By submitting this application, the Applicant confirms that: (i) this proposal and the project complies with the Fund 10 Rules; and (ii) data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.	I Accept	Required

There are a number of resources available to you to help navigate the proposal submission process.

To seek additional assistance please consider reviewing the following documents and support:

• How to submit a proposal

• Telegram chat for Catalyst Proposers
• Fund10 Launch Guide
• Community Review Guidelines

IMPORTANT

Any largely blank proposals (empty drafts with many TBD/TBC/coming soon items) or ideas with titles such as "Placeholder" may be archived without notice at any time. Kindly submit drafts once you are ready to proceed with enough context for the community to be able to provide tangible feedback.