Science Events Funding Program

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LATEST NEWS

APPLICATION DEADLINE

15 February 2023

Please note that for deadlines we use the Anywhere on Earth – AoE Time Zone (UTC -12). For example, this means that your application must be submitted by 12:00 UTC on 16 February 2023.

FUNDS AVAILABLE

The total funding for this scheme is $25,000 USD. Up to $7,500 USD is available per event. Smaller requests are more likely to be awarded.

The original source of these funds is a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, currently held by the Open Science Hardware Foundation (OSHF), a non-profit organization in the United States.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

All organizations are eligible to apply as long as their proposed events:

1. have a clear focus on promoting or advancing open science hardware within a specific discipline
2. are aligned with the GOSH code of conduct and Manifesto.

You do not need a previous relationship/involvement with GOSH. Grants can only be given to a legal organization and not to individuals.

Proposals for virtual, in-person, or hybrid events are welcome.

Sadly, because the funds are held by OSHF (a United States-based non-profit), the funding cannot legally go to organizations based in a place subject to United States trade embargoes (full list here).

REVIEW PROCESS

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

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

SELECTION CRITERIA

Only projects that meet the aforementioned eligibility requirements will be granted full evaluation.

Applications will be evaluated on three key aspects.

1. How the event will promote or advance open science hardware within the specified scientific discipline.
2. Broader impacts of this event for the global open science hardware community. What happens after this event? What documentation, takeaways, lessons, publications, deliverables, or other outputs will come from this event having occurred? How will the persons involved in this event continue the ideas or projects encountered at the event?
3. The feasibility of the event. For instance, have the organizers demonstrated experience in planning and leading events such as these? Does the budget seem reasonable for what their planned actions are? Does the event seem doable considering their declared goals and timeline?

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 may be subject to further refinement, but we shall note any changes once this is posted.

Criterion	3	2	1	Comments
Eligibility	Proposal meets all eligibility criteria	Some criteria need clarification	Not eligible
Scope to promote or advance open science hardware within the specified scientific discipline	The event will have a significant impact on promoting or advancing open science hardware within the specified scientific discipline	The event will have some impact on promoting or advancing open science hardware within the specified scientific discipline	The event will have minimal impact on promoting or advancing open science hardware within the specified scientific discipline, or the impact could have been achieved through other means
Broader Impacts	The proposal clearly defines convincing ways in which the outputs of the event could have a significant broader impact on the open science hardware community.	The proposal puts forward some realistic ideas for how the outputs of the event could have a broader impact on the open science hardware community.	The proposal does not describe how the event could have a broader impact on the open science hardware community or the impact described would be unlikely or low.
Feasibility	The proposal definitely seems accomplishable given the described timeline, goals, and budget. Budget seems reasonable and includes estimated costs, requested costs, and costs covered by other sources. All expenses are justified.	Some aspects of the event are unclear about their feasibility.	The proposal overall does not seem possible to pull off given the timeline, goals, and budget

Final recommendations for funding will be approved by the Reviewers internally as a group and then approved by the GOSH community council.

Next, the Reviewers will notify the recommended awardees of their selection. The final official approval will only come after the grant awarding body (OSHF) finishes a final due diligence legal review of the awardees.

BUDGET

Up to $7500 USD is available per event. Smaller requests are more likely to be awarded.

EVENT CANCELATION/VIRTUALIZATION

In case an event needs to be canceled (for instance due to COVID-19 restrictions), awardees can submit a new budget for “virtualizing the event”, if the event was not originally planned as virtual.

RESPONSIBILITIES & REPORTING

Responsibilities of selected event proposals:

• Post at least one pre-event update on the GOSH forum
• Post at least one post-event update on the GOSH forum
• Publish at least one mature documentation output that will tangibly benefit the open science hardware community
  • This is broadly defined so be creative. The output can be an event report but doesn’t have to be!
  • At least this output (but preferably all outputs) from the event should be shared under an appropriate open source license (e.g. OSHWA 4-compatible licenses for hardware, free software licenses for software, and CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-SA 4.0 for others)
• Submit links to all of the above items and a financial report (spreadsheet template provided) to OSHF.

TIMELINE

15 January 2023 to 15 February 2023 – Submit your application

28 February 2023 – Successful applications announced (pending official confirmation from the GOSH non-profit, which currently holds the funds)

28 February to 31 May 2023 – Run your event!

By 15 June 2023 – Submit your final reports

Please note that for deadlines we use the Anywhere on Earth – AoE Time Zone (UTC -12). For example, this means that your application must be submitted by 12:00 UTC on 16 February 2023.

HOW TO APPLY

Please fully answer each of the ten questions below and post your completed application either:

1. by responding to this forum thread; or
2. by sending an email with the application text in the body or in an attached editable document (not a PDF) to admin@openhardware.science.

Application Form

There are no strict word limits but we have made suggestions for the expected length of each answer.

1. Name of organization
2. Email address (or preferred and reliable way of contacting you)
3. Tell us about your organization and your event team (approx 50-100 words)
4. Does your event team have representation of a marginalized demographic due to factors such as, but not limited to, race, ability, place of birth, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class situation or other identification? If so, how? (approx 25-50 words)
5. What scientific discipline is your event related to? (approx 10 words)
6. Describe your event. Include the aims and outcomes, who will be invited and how, how the event will be advertised. Summarize the event timeline, agenda and facilitation plan. (approx 200-250 words)
7. What type of outputs will result from the event (e.g. reports, documentation, media) and how will you share them? (approx 100-200 words)
8. How will your event promote or advance open science hardware within the specified scientific discipline? (approx 100-200 words)
9. How will your event and its outputs have an impact on the broader open science hardware community? (approx 100-200 words)
10. What is the funding for? Describe your budget. List what you are going to spend it on and how. (include a table, no word limit)
11. How would your event address GOSH’s values of diversity and inclusion? (approx 50-150 words)
12. Are there any conflicts of interest that you wish to declare? (approx 10-50 words)

After you submit your application, we will contact you on the email address provided to acknowledge that your application has been received and will be considered for review. This is also how we will contact you to communicate any decisions.

SUPPORT & ENQUIRIES

If you have a question about this funding call, please post in the questions thread on the GOSH Forum or send us an email via admin@openhardware.science.