Blockchains for Social Good

Here's another grant that could be well aligned

https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/index.cfm?pg=prizes_blockchains

The challenge is to develop scalable, efficient and high-impact decentralised solutions to social innovation challenges leveraging Distributed Ledger Technology (DLTs), such as the one used in blockchains.

Expected Results

• pioneering decentralised solutions to global and/or local sustainability challenges
• generating positive social change by making available novel solutions for decentralising and disintermediating processes
• demonstrating the viability of solutions enabling a more even distribution and sharing of information and resources which respects privacy while providing levels of transparency
• stimulating the emerging community of developers and practitioners of "blockchains for social good" applications

Deadline

June 25 - a short timeframe

Am asking around my EU circles. @rabble have you had experience peripherally (perhaps with DCENT) with the EU 2020 pot? I have asked Dyne folx for links out, you might have some other connections we could backchannel to find out what the deal is?

@mix Spoke with colleague from Dyne who thinks it is a good fit and has offered to act as a point of contact for back channelling with folx in the EU body. Dyne has been a part of two successful research grants to the EU with D-CENT and DECODE - not the same as this prize (it's the first year) but still useful.

I have also spoken with a friend who has experience with writing this type of application in the field of radical technologies and is potentially up for helping work on this with me. @zelf do you have capacity to hop on a call with us?

The grant is for 1 Million Euros so I think it is worth the focus. We have a month.

Oh no, does that mean @zelf's SSB identity is now lost forever too?

@cblgh I just jumped in a pool with my phone so can't add new numbers to signal. Won't be able to do much with this till 36 hours away - but will email zelf :) Am continuing the conversations with my contacts and am happy to lead this as I seem fairly well placed at this moment in time. I'm about to move from fiji to australia but that will just take up 3 days or so

cc: #mmt (another lost identity, mmt is likely working on an mvp which will make it much more intuitive to back up ssb identities so lost identities will be a much less common feature of peer-to-peer networks)

have emailed zelf

I'm keen to dedicate energy/ time to this this month

First hurdle:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/index.cfm?pg=prizes_blockchains#results

Timetable

16 May 2018 – contest opens
2 April 2019 – deadline for registration of interest
3 September 2019 – deadline to submit applications

Will contact them and find out if there is flexibility in registration of interest.

Will contact them and find out if there is flexibility in registration of interest.

i.e. try to register interest tonight / tomorrow.

Hurdle 1.1

Info

In order to apply for this call, your organisation must be registered with the European Commission. If you know the unique 9-digit PIC (Participant Identification Code) of the organisation, enter it directly. If you do not know the PIC, try searching for the organisation using the Search button below. If you still cannot find your organisation you may apply for the PIC using Beneficiary Registry in the Participant Portal. If your organisation was not established/registered in one of the Member States of the EU, you can find further information in the Annex on General Conditions of the Horizon 2020 work programme, in the guidelines on third countries' participation, or in the guidelines on the status of entities from potential Associated Countries valid during the first year of implementation of Horizon 2020.

We're going to have to decide all the organisations who will be involved in this grant. Each of them is going to have to apply for a PIC

Simplest thing for us to do would be to bootstrap using existing companies or coops

blockades.org (I am doing this now)

protozoa ( @mix, @Piet, @Alanna)

rootsystems ( @mikey)

ACTION ITEM!

for example - given the tight deadlines here can anyone with a company or coop go ahead with the links below and apply for a PIC. We can figure stuff out on the fly and if we don't get our shit together, it won't hurt to have a PIC in reserve.

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/grants/applying-for-funding/register-an-organisation/registration-of-organisation_en.htm

Registration of your organisation

Before submitting a project proposal, all organisations involved in the project must first be registered in the Participant Portal Participant Register and have their 9-digit Participant Identification Code (PIC number).

I am struggling to connect to the server to make a PIC

I am struggling to connect to the server to make a PIC

Fiji why you no consistent packet me

Dear European Commission, if you fund us, we can fix your data model. Your current approach makes it highly difficult to access without a consistent internet connection.

Do the organisations have to be in the EU?

No, but there needs to be evidence of it being good for european citizens

Just had a mumble call with @deprecated_zelf who will be organising another call ASAP. I guess perhaps making a gathering and then assembling folx who might be interested.

I am back channeling to figure out if the registration of interest missed deadline is a deadend or if we can hop over the hurdle.

Will loop other grant writing friend into the ecosystem also depending on outcome of backchanneling.

cc: @mix
@Alanna
@Dan Hassan

hey @Dan Hassan I swear I saw June 25 on the page when I posted this last night but it's not there any more.

Also, note REGISTRATION OF INTEREST JUNE 2019 ... which gives us a bit of time D:

I tried to skim details around and couldn't really see what it meant "competition opens"... but note I'm late night organising. Are you late night coordinating too ... did you just take an international flight on hard mode and are trying to start and EU company?

OH ... https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/pdf/infographics/eic_horizon-prize-blockchains.pdf has:

Deadline - JUNE 25 2019 ... sigh

While https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/index.cfm?pg=prizes_blockchains#results

Timetable
16 May 2018 – contest opens
2 April 2019 – deadline for registration of interest
3 September 2019 – deadline to submit applications

My bad.
and it looks like they have some inconsistent dates

My contact has said that

2 April 2019 – deadline for registration of interest

Is highly unlikely to be a hard limit. The final deadline is though. They are asking directly for us.

First hurdle nearly surmounted.

Time for a micro-celebration

I have moved from micro-celebration to a full mini-celebration!

@zelf great work! I have started this hackmd document I'll start throwing in some tips which I have been given by my contact (who has had two successful applications).

@zelf for the doodle, am I seeing the time in my own timezone? Or is it your timezone of GMT +1 ? Or is it UTC?

I have a colleague who has been involved in two successful H2020 (or one of them might have just been a big EU/EC one) applications (though they have been research grants rather than a prize)

Some tips:
    - the fact you use software developed in other EC project will be a plus btw (he is referring to secrets which has inspired mmt stuff)
    - I won't be in the jury but can well guess the criteria :-P
    - gather proofs, indicators, numbers but also interviews
    - yes you need to build a library
    - i recommend you do your best on the project, applications do not need to be long. they expect short applications with quantitative indicators and a good qualitative narrative
    - the prize is different, not a research grant. you need to demonstrate ongoing success and aim for more
    - write a good application, use the same terms on the bid is always a good guideline.

@zelf "Especially the short part, might save us a lot time. There's actually a department in a city close by to me which work specifically with guidance for EU applications. I'll schedule a meeting with them as well :)"

Excellent!

"The way I've understood doodle it displays the time in the timezone of the person viewing it. So should be in your own timezone :) (are the times really strange? I made all the times between 9AM -9PM in Swedish GMT+1 time)"

duh! feel like I should have thought of this :D Thanks for the clarification.

Filled in the poll.

hey @Dan Hassan @zelf I want to check I've not missed something - the due date is September 2019 ... as in ~15 months from now. To my eyes that's a long way away... do these applications need that much energy and time, or were you reading 2018?

Regardless, keen to meet and talk. At least we're gathering resources and practicing writing about ourselves.

@mix,
@zelf is contacting them directly as there are a number of contradicting dates in there.

As you say, this is all valuable work to put in which can be remixed and reused. Better to be prepared for the earlier date and get an application in early and then keep appending as we improve our narrative arc

I just spoke to my grant writing friend and they are excited to get involved. Am going to get them on ssb and then will intro them here.

Going to bed now - have added a gathering:

%lakvC28...

Can folx who are about to start their day ping anyone you think should be in the call?

Hey folx I have added an agenda and mix has added a setup guide

Details found in the gathering here:

%lakvC28...

Just to be clear there is an adhoc meeting happening Saturday 26th. Details in the gathering. We started organizing this when we thought the deadline was closer. We now know this is not the case but we're leveraging the momentum we built anyway to get the conversation started.