All deadlines are 19:00 GMT on the date specified.

Internal Procedures - Governing

The internal procedures in this document govern the activities of both Sub-Committees. The document sets forth the processes the Sub-Committees will follow in order to screen applications and conduct a formal review of proposals submitted for grants.

Cycle Procedure

Each Cycle will have three periods, a Submission Period, a Review Period, and a Decision Period.

The Submission period is designed to accommodate the submission and fair review of applications. The Review Period is designed to enable a methodical and interactive review of submissions and to enable sound grants decisions. The Decision Period is designed to facilitate efficient and diligent grants decisions.

The Cycle Procedure is set forth in detail in sections that follow.

Submission Period - Procedure

• During the Submission Period, applicants will be able to submit proposals through the Applications form:

  Application

• The Submission Period will last one week, ending on:

  • February 1, 2023 for Cycle 10; and
  • March 8, 2023 for Cycle 11

• During the Submission Period, the Council will have two objectives: (1) finalize Sub-Committee review rubrics and (2) begin reviewing applications.

  • Objective 1 - Finalize Sub-Committee Review Rubrics
    • The Sub-Committees will publish final review rubrics by the last day of the Submission Period of Cycle 10.
    • For Cycle 11, the Sub-Committees will publish any amendments to their review rubrics by the end of the Submission Period of Cycle 11.
  • Objective 2 - Begin Reviewing Applications
    • Sub-Committee members will begin reviewing applications in accordance with the procedures for the Intake Filter outlined below.

Review Period - Procedure

• The Review Period will last two weeks, culminating with the publication of a list of proposals to be voted on by the Council for final review. The Review Period will end:
  • Cycle 10: February 15, 2023
  • Cycle 11: March 22, 2023
• The Review Period has three objectives: (1) complete Intake Filter; (2) Complete Preliminary Review; (3) Publish list of proposals to be reviewed for Final Review.
• Objective 1 - Intake Filter
  • Intake Filter is a preliminary review to assess the adequacy of proposals. This process begins during the Submissions Period and continues for the first week of the Review Period.
  • To begin the Intake Filter process, the Grants Council lead will assign proposals submitted prior to the end of the Submission Period to Sub-Committee members in sequential order. Applications will be reviewed in order of the time of submission (first to last).
  • The assigned member will conduct a Submissions Period Review, as described below.
    • For each assigned proposal, the member will review the proposal to assign a score of “0” or “1”.
      • A score of “0” means reject. The score indicates that a proposal fails to provide key information, does not satisfy proposal template requirements, or otherwise exhibits a deficiency that requires resubmission or rejection.
      • A score of “1” means review. The score indicates that the proposal satisfies the information requirements of the proposal form and has a reasonable chance to receive a grant, provided that there are clarifications or greater proof of concept.
    • For any proposal that is marked “0,” the reviewer must specify the grounds for rejection. The reviewer can tag the application as:
      • Incomplete: the application is incomplete or does not provide sufficient information to key questions.
      • Deficient-Clarify: the application does not provide answers sufficient for the reviewer to assess whether to include the application in the Cycle’s Review Period.
      • Deficient-Reject: the application does not provide answers sufficient to assess whether to include the application in the list of proposals that will be reviewed in the current Cycle’s Review Period and based on the information in the application, it is unlikely the project would successfully receive a grant.
      • Other: the application is unlikely to receive a grant for another reason that includes a reasonable explanation from the reviewer.
  • Reviewers must provide commentary that elaborates on the grounds for rejection. For instance, if an application is Incomplete, the reviewer must specify where the application is incomplete. Reviewers should provide commentary on how a proposal may be improved.
  • The Council Lead will create a simple form for Sub-Committee members to complete for each review and manage a tracker to ensure orderly review of proposals. The form responses will be made available to the community with the publication of the Review List at the end of the Review Period.
  • Proposers whose applications are rejected on the grounds of Deficient-Clarify or Other may be encouraged to work with Token House delegates to refine the proposal for submission in the following Cycle.
• Objective 2 - Preliminary Review

  • Upon the completion of the Intake Filter, but no later than the end of the first week of the Review Period, the Grants Lead will communicate to each Sub-Committee the number of applications that passed Intake Review. The Grants Lead will also include an assignment of each proposal to a reviewer.

  • All proposals must receive a Preliminary Review at least two days prior to the end of the Review Period. For Season 3, the Review deadlines will be:

    • Cycle 10: February 13, 2023
    • Cycle 11: March 20, 2023

  • Review Criteria and Proposer Communications

    • A reviewer will complete an assessment form for each proposal they review. The Grants Council lead will provide the form to the Sub-Committee members. The form will be based on each Sub-Committee’s rubric, which can be found in each Sub-Committee landing page:

    Builders Sub-Committee

    Growth Experiments Sub-Committee

    • As part of the review, the reviewer may identify any aspects of a proposal that, if clarified or refined, may lead to a meaningful improvement in the outcome for the proposer and / or the accountability of the proposer to the Optimism community through milestone refinement.
      • After identifying areas that may be improved, the reviewer may invite the proposer to a call to refine parts of the application. The reviewer will summarize any call in #grants-council.
      • In order to permit a refining statement, the reviewer must send specific questions to the proposer and post those questions in #grants-council.
      • A refining statement may only address the specific questions posed in the reviewer’s written communication.
      • Any refining statement must be received by the second-to-last day of the Review Period. For Season 3, refining statements will be due on:
        • Cycle 10: February 14, 2023
        • Cycle 11: March 22, 2023
      • Upon receiving a refining statement, the reviewer may include a comment to Sub-Committee explaining how the reviewer would change the assigned score in light of the refining statement. The statement does not change the score recorded, but may inform the Sub-Committee’s deliberations during the Decision Period. This statement will be referred to as a Score Update.

  • The reviewer for Proposal Review must be different from the reviewer for Intake Filter review.

• Objective 3 - Determination and Publication of Review List
  • On the last day of the Review Period, each Sub-Committee will vote, for each proposal refinement, whether to adopt Score Updates. Each update will be voted on and approved by a simple majority vote of the Sub-Committee.
  • Immediately, thereafter a final list of scores will be provided to the Sub-Committees for the adoption of a Proposals List.
  • The Proposals List will be determined as follows:
    • The Builders Sub-Committee will review each application with a score of 16 or higher.
    • The Growth Experiments Sub-Committee will review each application with a score of 16 or higher.
  • Each Sub-Committee may vote to review a proposal that does not meet the cutoff, provided that a member other than the most recent reviewer motions to include the proposal and a simple majority of the Sub-Committee vote to approve the proposal.
  • The Grants Council Lead will publish the Grant Review Roundup at the end of the Review Period. The Lead will also publish explanations for proposal rejections. The publication dates for Season 3 will be:
    • Cycle 10 Grant Review Roundup: February 15, 2023
    • Cycle 11 Grant Review Roundup: March 22, 2023

Decision Period - Procedure