Collaborative Development Program

The GOSH Collaborative Development Program is for organisations and groups working on existing or new open science hardware projects, with the aim of building collaboration with industry experts, groups, and organisations.

Applications are submitted by responding to this thread (see instructions below).

If you have a question about this funding or a related discussion, please post in this other thread!

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM GOALS

The GOSH Collaborative Development Program is designed to facilitate the production of high quality open science hardware by building collaboration. The goals of this program are as follows:

• To move forward existing OScH projects to achieve higher quality or more relevant results’
• To incorporate and experiment with a range of documentation best practices
• To match up new hardware projects with expertise from across the GOSH community
• To experiment with collaborative models in working with professionals who have expertise presently missing, or scarce within the GOSH community
• To learn from these professionals to improve the process of OScH design and development.

The collaboration itself will involve participation from professionals within and outside the GOSH community and will result in an improved piece of OScH with published open software and hardware designs, along with any calibration information, standards, safety information and guidelines for use.

This program feeds directly into our efforts to support and grow the OScH community by experimenting with collaborative models and disseminating best practices in documentation, design and testing, as prioritised in the GOSH Roadmap. Additionally, the results and lessons learned from these exercises will be useful in other initiatives.

The application tracks and phases are outlined below:

Established Project Track - This track provides funding for established Open Science Hardware projects looking to advance their project to the next stage (e.g. creating a new fabrication technique for mass manufacturing, passing certification, establishing quality control, creating technical documentation, etc.) through collaborative development with professionals who are presently not involved in OScH collaborations in an academic and community-based context, such as professional electronic test engineers.

Funding will be awarded in two phases the initial application will cover the project’s aspirations that cannot be met by the community. To meet the goals of the Collaborative Development Program (see above), successful applicants for Phase 1 are expected to source and hire external experts (freelancers, consultants, etc), and write a detailed plan for implementing their objectives. This plan will form the basis for the application for Phase 2.

Five projects will be awarded funding for Phase 1. Only these projects will be eligible to apply for additional funding in Phase 2, based on the submission of a progress report from Phase 1.

New Project Track - This track provides funding for individuals and groups looking to build their first prototype or to significantly improve a prototype.

The project should aim to fill a gap not currently filled by an established open science hardware project. A core part of this grant is collaborative development. This means that projects with a small team are welcome to apply, but they will need to build a collaboration plan for Phase 2 of the application. Funding will be awarded in two phases and the initial application should cover the objectives of the project and how the project will look for collaborators. The phase 2 application should detail a body of work that will be completed by the new collaboration.

Five projects will be awarded funding for Phase 1. Only these projects will be eligible to apply for additional funding in Phase 2, of which three will be selected based on submission of a progress report from Phase 1.

All organizations are eligible to apply as long as their proposed events are aligned with the GOSH code of conduct and ethos. You do not need a previous relationship/involvement with GOSH. Grants can only be given to a legal organization and not to individuals.

FUNDS

The total funding for the program is $110,000 USD.

Seventy percent (70%) of the total, or $77,000 USD, will be allocated to the Established Project Track, and 30% of the total, or $33,000 USD, will be allocated to the New Project Track.

Established Project Track funding breakdown:

• Phase 1: Up to $4,600 USD per project, for a total of up to five projects (up to $23,000 USD awarded in total). Up to three projects from Phase 1 will be approved for Phase 2 funding based on progress evidenced by submission of an interim report.
• Phase 2: Up to $18,000 USD per project, for a total of up to three projects (up to $54,000 USD awarded in total).

New Project Track funding breakdown:

• Phase 1: Up to $2,000 USD per project, for a total of up to five projects (up to $10,000 USD awarded in total). Up to three projects from Phase 1 will be approved for Phase 2 funding based on progress evidenced by submission of an interim report.
• Phase 2: Up to $7,600 USD per project, for a total of up to three projects (up to $23,000 USD awarded in total).

The source of these funds is a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 2 held by GOSH Inc., a non-profit organization in the United States. The GOSH Community Council and the wider GOSH community has designed the Collaborative Development Program and will be managing the selection and support of projects while GOSH Inc. will manage the financial administration and funding agreements…

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

All organisations and groups are eligible to apply as long as their proposed projects are aligned with the GOSH Manifesto 2, code of conduct, and ethos. You do not need a previous relationship/involvement with GOSH.

To be clear, physical hardware or hardware design do not have to be the primary output. If hardware is produced, it must be published in a way that meets the OSHWA Open Source Hardware Definition.

Unfortunately, the funding cannot legally go to projects based in a place subject to United States trade embargoes (full list here).

To recap eligibility criteria:

• Organization (not individual)
• Event is aligned with GOSH Manifesto
• Event aligns with GOSH code of conduct and ethos
• Not based in a place the USA has a trade embargo
• Applicant is an organisation, not an individual
• Project has an organisation/legal entity (company, university, nonprofit or other) that can accept the funding.
• Project has or plans to have open source licensing (i.e. OSHWA-compatible licenses for hardware, free software licenses for software, and CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-SA 4.0 for others)
• Meets the OSHWA Open Source Hardware Definition.

REVIEW PROCESS

Reviewers

Proposals will be reviewed by the Collaborative Development Program Funding Distribution Working Group formed under an open call published on the GOSH forum 1 and open to anyone to apply. Once this group of 3 to 7 people (which will include at least one Community Council member) is set by the Community Council, they will select projects based on the eligibility criteria.

If a member of this review panel has a conflict of interest with an application, they will recuse themselves from reviewing said application.

Selection Process

Only projects that meet the aforementioned eligibility requirements will be granted full evaluation. Applications will be evaluated on 5 key aspects.

1. Development of the GOSH Mission

The first is how the project will the advance GOSH’s Mission, according to the GOSH manifesto’s 10 key principles:

• GOSH is accessible
• GOSH makes science better
• GOSH is ethical
• GOSH changes the culture of science
• GOSH democratizes science
• GOSH has no high priests
• GOSH empowers people
• GOSH has no black boxes
• GOSH is impactful tools
• GOSH allows multiple futures for science

Since this is funding for a specific project, your proposal should describe how you will adhere to the aforementioned principles.

2. Collaborative Development

How will the group/organisation continue to build and sustain collaboration?

3. Broader Impact

Applications will be reviewed on the broader impacts of this project on the larger OScH global community. How will project results be disseminated after project submission? What documentation, takeaways, lessons, publications, deliverables, or other outputs will be generated?

4. Making Open Science Hardware Ubiquitous by 2025

​​How does this project move us towards making Open Science Hardware ubiquitous by 2025? Is your work well recognised throughout your research community? Does it fill a gap that no open hardware fills? Perhaps it is a new instrument never before created. Tell us how your project will help our community move forward.

5. Feasibility

Finally, the feasibility of the project is taken under consideration. For instance have members of the organisation demonstrated experience in planning and developing projects such as these? Does the budget seem reasonable for what their planned actions are? Does the project seem doable considering their declared goals and timeline?

Reviewers

Funding applications for The Collaborative Development Program will be reviewed by a panel comprised of GOSH Council members and GOSH community members who have expressed interest in becoming a reviewer on the call for reviewers post on the GOSH forum.

The reviewers will give a numerical rating (1-3, with 3 being best) to each of the review criteria along with a written justification. The reviewers will then meet amongst themselves to evaluate the applications, deliberate, and create a final list of recommendations for funding.

The rubric for evaluating the applications is listed below. These review criteria maybe be subject to further refinement, but we shall note any changes once this is posted.

Final recommendations for funding will be approved by the Reviewers and sent to the GOSH community council. The Community Council will only intervene if it considers that there are exceptional circumstances.

Next the Reviewers will notify the recommended awardees of their selection, but the final official approval will only come after the grant awarding body (GOSH Inc.) finishes a final due diligence review of the awardees to check their legal status and ability to accept and administer the funds.

BUDGET

Please include a brief breakdown of allowable direct costs, the amount and justification for each, using the following categories:

• Personnel
• Supplies
• Subcontracts
• Travel
• Equipment
• Other expenses

Below is an example of a budget line item:

PROJECT WITHDRAWAL

We understand that projects don’t always go as expected or planned. Sometimes this leads to unanticipated success and sometimes it means that project members are unable to complete the work as outlined in their proposal.

In the event members are faced with canceling or withdrawing their project after funds have been dispersed (for instance due to illness, natural disaster or unforeseen circumstances), we ask that the project team a) communicates to the GOSH Council in writing as soon as possible; b) returns any unused funds; c) submits documentation that includes the challenges that prevented them from meeting their objectives and/or responsibilities.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities of selected proposals:

• Attend scheduled check-ins with the Collaborative Development Funding Working group
• Make a post on the GOSH forum about your project at the conception of the grant
• Post at least one update on this forum at beginning of each phase
• Post at least one update on this forum at the conclusion of each phase and before launching into the subsequent phase
• List the open source hardware design principles your project will follow
• Provide detailed project documentation at end of each phase
• Publish at least one mature documentation output that will tangibly benefit the open science hardware community

HOW TO APPLY:

Timeline for applicants for Phase 1:

• 31 January 2022 to 25 February 2022 - Submit your application
• 8 March - Grant awardees notified; due diligence process begins
• 15 March 2022 - Successful applications announced to the community (public announcements may be delayed if due diligence checks are still pending).
• 1 April to 5 July 2022 - Work on your projects

Phase 2

• 30 June to 5 November 2022 - End of Phase 2

Please fully answer each of the ten questions below and post your completed application as a response to this forum thread!

1. Name of applicant(s)
2. Email address (or preferred and reliable way of official contact)
3. What track are you applying to? (select one):

• New Project Track (complete questions 4-9)
• Established Project Track (complete questions 4-18)

4. Tell us about your project in one or two sentences
5. Describe your project goals and how you expect to achieve them
6. Approximately how many people would be working on your project?
7. Describe how your oranganisa will create and manage collaboration with others.
8. Does your project have representation for a marginalized demographic due to factors such as race, ability, place of birth, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class situation or other identification? If so, how?
9. What resources / infrastructure do you currently have to support your project?
10. What will you use the funds for? Describe your budget. List what you are going to spend it on and how.
11. How will you share the outcomes your project? What documentation will you provide so that it will benefit the community as a whole? (videos? photos? a how-to?)
12. How will your project address GOSH’s values of diversity and inclusion?
13. Are there any conflicts of interest that you wish to declare?

For applicants to the Established Project Track, in addition to the questions above, answer the questions below to briefly describe your project design and implementation plan.

14. Describe your experimental plan, including any new technologies or tools to be developed.
15. How will the work you describe be performed within the budget and time period allocated for the initial Phase I award? This should include project work time, ramp up and required reporting.
16. What essential milestones will you generate during your Phase I award?
17. If Phase I is successfully completed, what are the next steps?
18. Please include a brief breakdown of allowable direct costs under the following categories: personnel, supplies, subcontracts, travel, and other expenses (equipment).

After you submit your application here, the working group will use your answer to question 2 to acknowledge that your application has been completed and will be considered for review. This is also how we will contact you to communicate any final decisions.

Applications are submitted by responding to this forum thread. If you have a question about this funding or a related discussion, please post in this other thread!

The GOSH Community Council is forming a working group to review and select open science project proposals under The GOSH Collaborative Development Program, and oversee the distribution of GOSH funds to those projects.

The GOSH Collaborative Development Program is designed to facilitate the production of high quality open science hardware by building collaboration. The goals of this program are as follows:

• To move forward existing OScH projects to achieve higher quality or more relevant results’
• To incorporate and experiment with a range of documentation best practices
• To match up new hardware projects with expertise from across the GOSH community
• To experiment with collaborative models in working with professionals who have expertise presently missing, or scarce within the GOSH community
• To learn from these professionals to improve the process of OScH design and development.

The total amount of funding that will be distributed is $110,000 USD. All organisations and groups are eligible to apply as long as their proposed projects are aligned with the GOSH Manifesto, code of conduct, and ethos.

A call for applications for this funding was posted on 28 January 2022.

At least one member of the working group will be a Community Council member, and all members of this working group will be volunteers. The responsibilities of this working group are:

• Review the applications (this is the main task)

• Follow-up on the deliverables of the applicants selected

• Overseeing the money transfers to selected projects

• Participate in a meta-review/reflection event of this funding process in late 2022

The most active/busy times for the working group should be (a) February 15 2022 to 15 March 2022 for the first round of applications; (b) June to July 2022 for the second round; and (c) late 2022 for the reflection event.

Please note that because of the tight schedule, for this time the Community Council will make the final decision on the composition of this working group.

If you are interested in joining this working group, please let us know. There will be a minimum of 3 people in this group and a maximum of 7. Also note that if you are planning on applying for this funding yourself for an event you are also helping organize, it will most likely constitute a conflict of interest, and you will have to - at a minimum - recuse yourself from that part of the review process.

Thanks, and please express your interest by responding to this forum thread!