Please describe your proposed solution.

• Develop a plan to engage with the educational ecosystem in regards to SSI.
• Research contributes to the design of secure and decentralised systems for identity management, verifiable credentials, and educational achievements, fostering trust, innovation, and growth within the self-driven learning community and the Cardano ecosystem.

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Providing a theoretical framework that can serve as a foundation for further scientific but also practice-oriented work, has an immense value for further development and growth of the Cardano community

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The theoretically outlined use cases recommendations, insights, and guidelines provided in the paper can be adopted and implemented by self-driven learning platforms. Establishing new education and career paths by onboarding new experts and teachers and by building self-driven incentives and reputation standards.

• Scholarly Impact and Peer recognition: Number of citations, subsequent studies and publications, high citation rates. Invitations to present the research at conferences, workshops, or academic events. This involves positive reviews and feedback from experts in the field as it contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the Cardano ecosystem.

• Influence on policy discussions and decisions. If the paper's policy implications and recommendations are considered and incorporated into relevant regulations, guidelines, or frameworks, it signifies its impact on shaping policies related to self-sovereign identity, verifiable credentials, and NFTs (SBTs) in self-driven learning.

• Level of engagement and feedback from the scientific, Atala PRISM and self-driven learning communities. This can include receiving acknowledgments, endorsements, or invitations for collaborations from community members, educators, or learners who find the research valuable and relevant to their needs.

• Enriched Credentialing Experience: The enhancement of the system through the incorporation of educational insights, competencies, skills, and learning paths should result in a more comprehensive and meaningful representation of individuals' qualifications. Assessing the improved credentialing experience and the credibility and value attributed to attained qualifications will indicate the success of this aspect.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

• Everything is shared as CC0 (Public Domain).
• <https://github.com/selfdriven-foundation>

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The selfdriven team supporting the projects have a wealth of experience in education and technology.

The selfdriven Foundation was founded in 2019 and the team is highly engaged within the Cardano community. It has a robust organisational structure.

Mark Byers (Initiator & Co-founder) is a qualified Engineer and has 30+ years experience delivering internet based high-grade solutions to market, including the vision to co-found the entityOS.cloud service in 2000.

Bence Lukacs (Co-Founder) is a former sports trainer and teacher and brings experience in school development, as well as teacher education projects and Media Education research.

Benjamin Heurich (Co-Founder) is a university lecturer and researcher in the departments of Sociology and Educational Sciences with a focus on digital education, educational equity and internationalisation.

Diverse advisory team with over 100+ years experience

Advisory team includes Mario Altimari (Co-Founder) eLearningDAO.

About The Team

About The Organisation

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

• Outlining the key objectives and compilation of relevant literature on ATALA Prism and Soulbound Tokens. This leads to an understanding of the fundamental concepts, features, and potential use cases of ATALA Prism and Soulbound Tokens within the context of Cardano.

• Refinement and development of theoretical models, frameworks, or hypotheses. Critical analysis of existing theories both in social sciences and the SBTs-paper, adapting or extending them, and proposing new conceptual frameworks that can guide your analysis.

• Collecting data through various means such as literature, surveys, interviews, or analysing existing datasets related to the adoption, usage and technical aspects.

• Critical evaluation of findings and theoretical outlines. Feedback from peers, domain experts and the (scientific) Cardano community to validate research and ensure the robustness of the conducted analysis and found conclusions.

• Addressing the feedback and incorporating revisions. Finalising the research by preparing a comprehensive research paper that presents the analysis of the potential of ATALA Prism and the applicability of Soulbound Tokens to the Cardano ecosystem.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

• Outlining the key objectives and compilation of relevant literature on ATALA Prism and Soulbound Tokens. This leads to an understanding of the fundamental concepts, features, and potential use cases of ATALA Prism and Soulbound Tokens within the context of Cardano.

• Refinement and development of theoretical models, frameworks, or hypotheses. Critical analysis of existing theories both in social sciences and the SBTs-paper, adapting or extending them, and proposing new conceptual frameworks that can guide your analysis.

• Collecting data through various means such as literature, surveys, interviews, or analysing existing datasets related to the adoption, usage and technical aspects.

• Critical evaluation of findings and theoretical outlines. Feedback from peers, domain experts and the (scientific) Cardano community to validate research and ensure the robustness of the conducted analysis and found conclusions.

• Addressing the feedback and incorporating revisions. Finalising the research by preparing a comprehensive research paper that presents the analysis of the potential of ATALA Prism and the applicability of Soulbound Tokens to the Cardano ecosystem.

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

• Research Paper, theoretical framework, academic contribution to Cardano
• Practical guidelines, community impact and policy implications

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Breakdown: The milestones of the research process consist of these different phases:

• Research outline and compilation (3000 ADA)
• Refining models, theories and frameworks (5500 ADA)
• Empirical Work, analysing theories and collecting data (18k ADA)
• Evaluation/Review/Feedback (5500 ADA)

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

• Benjamin Heurich (Lead Researcher)
• Bence Lukacs (Assistant Researcher)
• Mark Byers (Management)

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

• Generally leveraging the considerable existing investment into selfdriven Framework & Services.
• All funds are applied directly to community returns as core framework exists.