[SpaceProgram] HSP Project Grants: One-Shot, Multi-Phase, Continuing?

Fri Apr 13 22:28:45 CEST 2012

Good email Jerry,

By default, I think Multi-Phase, graduated funding would be
my preferred best choice.
I also like Cole's idea of a competition-based funding option.

In my view, Multi-Phase could also provide for Continuing Funding, in that
we could say "You've made progress, and the project is showing promise, but
not yet enough to warrant increased funding. Here's another allocation of $X
for this cycle". If a breakthrough occurs in a subsequent cycle, we could
increase funding.

I like Cole's idea about friendly, GGHC-style competitions with specific
goals. < $US1K might be a reasonable call, although possibly some
competition-style projects might be OK with larger budgets, especially if
expensive parts are involved. Maybe for larger-budget projects, we'd need
to limit the number of accepted entries.

I wonder if there might be a way to use the competition idea for more broad
community outreach past hacker/ maker spaces: for example, possibly open to
schools (tertiary and possibly secondary). This could improve visibility of
the HSP beyond our existing community, encourage young people to get
involved, and encourage them to join a hacker/ maker space and continue
with other projects. Down the track, it might be worth talking with Dale
Doherty about whether we could have HSP do that in conjunction with Make's
school program.

I wonder if, for any funding (including competitions), whether it might be
useful and administratively easy enough to stage the funding, perhaps
splitting it in two:
 - you submit a proposal.
 - if it gets accepted, you get X% of $X to get started
 - if you meet the first milestone/ deliverable, you get the balance of $X.

My intent here is to, on the one hand, provide some funds for people to get
started and explore interesting ideas; on the other, not pour funds into
project teams who can't execute: instead channel the funds to support those
who can get things done.

This would help to save us channelling too much money into dead-end efforts. If
I recall, for the GGHC we only had around 6 or 7 of the 30 original teams
drop out completely. A few others never got their project completed within
the deadline. It's really that first category that I'm suggesting having a
control point for.

For example, with a staged funding split of say 33%/66%, e14 (GGHC) might
have saved around $3.6K (6 x $600) - in this case, roughly 13% of the
original $27K budget spent outright ($900 x 30). Alternatively, this might
allow a greater "funnel": more teams can be accepted and be involved, but
only those showing good progress get fully funded.

The downside would be the additional administrative overhead, potential
delays in transferring funds, and - if not managed well - the potential to
have that scuttle a short, time-boxed competition.

Paul

Paul Szymkowiak
http://hackmelbourne.org

On 14 April 2012 04:16, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:

> For me I see educational tools as the easiest barrier to entry.
> Projects could be on the order of 100 to 1000. For this I would like
> to build a data acquisition unit for model rocket acceleration, gps,
> fin control, etc. Parts for this project are about 400 on sparkfun.
> This could be done GGHC style best, up front funds with non monetary
> prizes that are donated for judge selected winners.. We could do this
> level for a long time before we ever go bigger. And big projects more
> than 1000 should have match funding.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 4:55 AM, Jerry Isdale <isdale at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The Hackerspace Space Program (HSP) is still in its early formative
> stages.
> > Contract negotiations with our funding agency DARPA (USGovt
> >  http://darpa.mil) are barely getting started and related experience
> > indicates it could be 6mo to a year before we begin to see any money.
> >
> > Meanwhile, I'd like to start some discussion about the functions of HSP.
> >  The primary function is to provide small grants for research and
> education
> > projects related to the enhancement of humanity’s survivability.  The
> > proposal budget calls for $30,000US worth of grants to be funded every 3
> > months.
> >
> > What style of grants should we be considering?
> >
> > One-Shot Grant -- great ideas get $X once, and thats it for that
> > person/group.  Not so great as it doesnt reward innovation and success.
> It
> > might actually encourage people to submit ideas just to get some $ and
> not
> > do the work.
> >
> > Continuing Funding - some great idea (Unubtainium Production Reactor)
> gets
> > funded $X every cycle as long as it continues to show progress.  Some
> > measure of verified progress is required.
> >
> > Multi-Phase, graduated funding:  Projects go through a series of phases
> with
> > increasing funding.  This is similar to the USGovt Small Business
> Innovative
> > Research (SBIR) program (http://www.sbir.gov/about/about-sbir). Phase 1
> > gives a small amount (say $1000US) to help develop an idea and support
> > production of a proposal for Phase 2, perhaps with some design
> > docs/prototype/simulation.  Phase 2 gets a bigger chunk ($5-10,000) and a
> > bit more time perhaps to develop and produce a prototype.
> >
> > Grants would probably be in the range of $1000-10,000 so we can support a
> > number of innovative programs.  We would not expect our funds to be the
> sole
> > source of income for the researcher/educator/developer, nor the sole
> funding
> > for the project. We seek to offset the costs of development, not pay for
> it
> > entirely.
> >
> > What types of projects would be of interest?
> > There is a LOT of latitude in the " related to the enhancement of
> humanity’s
> > survivability" statement.
> > It could be some educational and outreach programs to teach about Space
> or
> > Limits of Growth or Growing Food or Peaceful Coexistance.  It could be
> > development of a novel rocket engine, or micro-sat.
> >
> > Given that we are a year (roughly) away from any Requests for Proposals,
> I
> > dont want people to get over excited and start submitting proposals.
>  But I
> > would like to hear what people think might be worthy of supporting, and
> how.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Jerry Isdale
> > http://MauiMakers.com
> > Hackerspace Space Program
> >
> >
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> > SpaceProgram at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/spaceprogram
> >
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