Update to challenge brief on Dec 13, 2023: Please note, that the total budget of this category changed. It was increased by 500,000 ada from the budget that was originally allocated to Catalyst Systems Improvements: Development and was archived as a whole. You can refer to this timestamped town hall segment and this reference slide deck for explanation.

In Fund10, the Cardano community gave consent for the Catalyst Team to begin realizing a technical roadmap that advances the state of the art for the innovation funding platform offered by Project Catalyst.

The goal of Catalyst Systems Improvements: Discovery category is to explore new strategic requirements or test technical or procedural experiments for Catalyst which have not yet demonstrated that high degrees of validation has already been achieved.

By following a data-driven approach to design and testing that benefits Project Catalyst, outputs achieved from this category will develop a shared understanding among the Cardano community about which priorities should be developed to service the broader innovation ecosystem building on Cardano.   

In all cases, collaboration with the Catalyst team is recommended to understand dependencies, before proposals are submitted.   

Areas of interest:

• Architectural design research for engineering of decentralization and/or distribution of decision-making advances for the Catalyst Voting System
• Research that clearly defines a known Catalyst-specific problem-space where the intention is to identify facts and/or clearly stated opinions that will likely assist in producing novel, Catalyst-specific technical requirements. 
• Detailed studies of a Catalyst-specific subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding for the benefit of servicing the broader innovation community building on Cardano. 

Eligibility guidance:

The following are examples of proposals that will not be eligible:

• Technical components that are already in development from any of the Catalyst Voices and/or Catalyst Ecosystem Accelerator deliverables

All project outputs developed or used by the proposer for projects in this category must, as a minimum: 

• Proposers must have reviewed the technical proposals for Catalyst Voices and Catalyst Ecosystem Accelerator (Hermes architecture) submitted by the Catalyst team in Fund10 before submitting. This is to ensure compliance with the existing technical roadmap that the Cardano community has already approved. 
• Be fully open source subject to the conditions of the following approved open source licenses (Apache 2.0, MIT License, or equivalent for software code; CC-BY-4.0 Apache 2.0, MIT licenses or equivalent for documentation); 
• Be available for use and further development by any person in whatever way they deem fit, without any limitations or encumbrances. If the project output is subject to 3rd party rights, the Proposer must provide a free, perpetual and non-revocable license for the community to use whatever rights belong to such 3rd parties without limitations and for whatever purpose.  
• Milestones must clearly include timelines for community review feedback, and standardized testing, and validation as set out in the process stated above.