Please describe your proposed solution.

Summary

Our proposed solution is to create a proactive Interface to the emerging EU Digital Agenda 2030 for the Cardano Community so that the community can realize opportunities that would otherwise be missed. The EU Digital Agenda 2030 stands for an emerging regulatory framework for the next phase of Digital Transformation, where the EU is aiming to align all fragmented historic regulations (e.g Cypbersecuriity NIS2, GDPR, eIDAS, EUID, DMA, DSA, MiCA, AI-Regulations) into one coherent approach. There are two main opportunities for the Cardano Community in the context of the EU’s Digital Agenda that we want to highlight and drive with this project:

• Funding Opportunities: In the context of its Digital Agenda, the European Union invests substantial amounts of money into innovation projects of all sizes and forms, including in the blockchain space. An example of this is the Horizon Europe program, with a total volume of 95.5 billion euros. Such funding sources could be a major additional catalyst (no pun intended) for projects in the Cardano community to grow and scale, as well as reach better market recognition.

• Participation in public sector projects: The European Union invests directly into specific blockchain projects with the aim of developing and testing solutions that comply with EU regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR (data privacy) and the NIS directive (cybersecurity). By becoming aware of participation opportunities through the help of DLT360’s work, the Cardano community can begin to be better represented in these initiatives.

The graphic below shows the positioning of this project in the overall DLT360 approach (The DLT360 Business Ladder: From Aggregating News, over Knowledge Management to Consulting):

Outcomes

We aim to accomplish the highlighted benefits through four concrete deliverables:

• The creation of a freely available, detailed and actionable guideline report for the Cardano Community that investigates and lays out the opportunities and synergies with the EU Digital Agenda and how to access them.

• Free Educational Seminars for the Cardano Community on the basis of these guidelines to increase the accessibility of these opportunities.

• Monitoring and alerting of EU funding opportunities for the Cardano Community through the DLT360 News Radar.

• Integration of policy and regulatory impact findings of the project into the DLT360 Navigator as a permanently available resource to the Cardano Community

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

This project will bring the following significant benefits to the Cardano ecosystem:

• Enabling projects building on Cardano to become aware of and realize funding opportunities available in the context of the EU‘s Digital Agenda.

• Increase the awareness of Cardano and Cardano-based solutions in the emerging EU regulations.

• Enable Cardano to be better represented in Blockchain-oriented initiatives in the context of the EU Digital Agenda.

• Help projects building on Cardano to gain a better understanding of and exposure to the European market (both public and private sector).

• Help projects building on Cardano better understand the technical compliance requirements for going to market in the European Union.

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

This project is part of the overall activities of DLT360. Nevertheless, we can identify a number of specific metrics, KPIs and qualitative factors for evaluating the mid- and long-term rate of success of this project.

• Number of downloads of the Report

• Number of seminars and seminar participants: The material generated by this project will be used in dedicated seminars. We will track this number of future activities and participants in such future activities.

• Tracking of usage in the community of the DLT360 News Radar and DLT360 Navigator Sections dedicated to the EU Digital Agenda 2030.

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

This project is part of the overall DLT360 mission and business model. The outputs of this project will be of long-term use and will be systematically shared as follows:

Publicly and freely available and shared with the community:

• Actionable Report on the Cardano Ecosystem’s opportunities in the context of the EU Digital Agenda (approx. 10,000 Words)

• Free Educational Seminars for the Cardano Community to provide a better understanding of and access to these opportunities (Approx. 30 slides, at least 3 seminars held)

• Monitoring and alerting of EU funding opportunities for the Cardano Community, as well as policy developments through the DLT360 News Radar (will be accessible through the DLT360 Suite) (10+ News Items created)

• Integration of policy and regulatory impact findings into the DLT360 Navigator as a -permanently available resource to the Cardano Community (accessible through the DLT360 Suite). (10 + Navigator Items created)

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

DLT360 was founded by an ambitious core team coming from many years of leadership experience in business and industry, combined with the fresh perspective of young talents in various disciplines (see team description later in this proposal). The senior founders have also been active members of and contributors to the Catalyst community since early on.

DLT360's core team and extended domain expert team in the knowledge areas of

• Economy
• Technology
• Regulation
• Politics
• ESG

has grown to approximately 25 people (the majority still part-time) during the past 2 years. With Fund 10, we also want to finance the launch of the DLT360 Token as the incentive basis for growing a vibrant global community of content contributors and solution partners.

DLT360 has successfully completed various projects in Funds 6, 7 and 8. Fund 10 is now dedicated to finalizing DLT360's foundational developments. This will get us to scale up our activities in 2024, for which we are aiming for a strategic partnership-based financing round - with the vision to become THE major think-tank and commercial consulting entity in the dynamically growing CARDANO/Web 3.0 space.

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

This project is focusing on achieving the following goals and deliverables:

• Establish the latest knowledge about the EU Digital Agenda and its opportunities for the Cardano Ecosystem.

• Proof: Extensive Report (approx. 10,000 words)

• Creating free educational seminars for positioning DLT360 as an active communicator in this field

• Proof: 3 Seminars were held; Slides were shared with the assessment team.

• Creating easily accessible Navigator and News Radar Material for increasing knowledge of the Community

• Proof: 10+ Navigator and 10+ News Radar Items created.

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.

Please find the basic definition of our Milestones and the related timeline and activities below:

Milestone 1: Project, Processes & Team in place

• Timeline: End of Week 1 of 24
• Method: DLT360 program- and project management
• Activities: Setting up project infrastructure & Web-landing page, kickoff meeting

Milestone 2: Completion of Literature Review Phase

• Timeline: End of Week 4 of 24
• Method: Research in the form of a Literature Review (focus on the latest online sources)
• Activities: Establishing a list of sources in consultation with domain experts, critical reading, capturing relevant content, setting up citations in ZOTERO, summarizing results in a literature-study report

Milestone 3: Draft Report

• Timeline: End of Week 8 of 24
• Method: Academic writing
• Activities: Writing a draft report on the EU Digital Agenda and its opportunities and implications for the Cardano Ecosystem

Milestone 4: Presentation slides completed

• Timeline: End of Week 12 of 24
• Method: Presentations plotting, design and production
• Activities: Creating the plotting and the design of the Presentations for our Seminars (total ~ 30 Slides)

Milestone 5: Final Report Completed

• Timeline: End of Week 16 of 24
• Method: Academic writing, Graphic design
• Activities: Editing the draft report, finalizing the report, designing the visual aspects of the report

Milestone 6: First Seminar held

• Timeline: End of Week 20 of 24
• Method: Seminar presentations via Zoom
• Activities: During this phase, we prepare, promote and hold the first of three seminars on the basis of the report created.

Milestone 7: All Seminars held and Navigator and News Radar Items complete

• Timeline: End of Week 23 of 24
• Method: Seminar presentations via Zoom, DLT360 Navigator and News Radar Content Creation
• Activities: During this phase, we hold the final two seminars on the basis of the report, and provide evidence for the continuous creation of the Navigator and News Radar items during the duration of the Project (+10 items each)

Milestone 8: Project completed

• Timeline: End of Week 24 of 24
• Method: Reporting
• Activities: As a last step, we establish the close-out report and the close-out video as required by the Catalyst guidelines

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

Here we show the Deliverables, Acceptance Criteria and Evidence for our Milestones:

Milestone 1: Project, Processes & Team in place

• Deliverables: Project execution and communication framework
• Acceptance Criteria:

1.1) GitHub workspace and

1.2) Project Website-landing page created

1.3) Kickoff meeting held

• Evidence for 1.1), 1.2), 1.3): Short demonstration video

Milestone 2: Completion of Literature Review Phase

• Deliverables: Literature Study Chapter of report completed
• Acceptance Criteria:

2.1) At least 20 relevant sources reviewed, documented in bibliography

2.2) Report-chapter with description

• Evidence for 2.1), 2.2) : Short demonstration video

Milestone 3: Draft Report completed

• Deliverables: Draft of the complete report, including the conclusions and recommendations chapter
• Acceptance Criteria:

3.1) Draft of the Report with approx. 10,000 words available (no graphics included yet)

• Evidence for 3.1): Short demonstration video

Milestone 4: Primer and Presentations completed

• Deliverables: Public Primer (short document), Public Presentation (short), Training Presentation
• Acceptance Criteria:

4.1) Primer with short summary of the report (approx. 500 words)

4.2) Short Presentation (approx. 5 slides)

4.3) Training Presentation (approx. 30 slides)

• Evidence for 4.1), 4.2), 4.3): Short demonstration video

Milestone 5: Final Report completed

• Deliverables: Edited report by correcting and designing the visual aspects of the report, finalizing the report
• Acceptance Criteria:

5.1) Finalized report with approx. 10,000 words and graphics available

• Evidence for 5.1): Short demonstration video

Milestone 6: First Seminar held

• Deliverables: First of 3 seminars on the basis of the report created.
• Acceptance Criteria:

6.1) Seminar Recording

6.2) List of participants (probably anonymized due to GDPR requirements)

• Evidence for 6.1), 6.2) : Short demonstration video

Milestone 7: All Seminars held and Navigator and News Radar Items complete

• Deliverables: All 3 (online) seminars held, content for DLT360 Navigator and DLT360 News Radar Content created and integrated
• Acceptance Criteria:

7.1) Seminar Recording

7.2) List of participants (probably anonymized due to GDPR requirements)

7.3) 10+ DLT360 Navigator items integrated and functional

7.4) 10+ DLT360 News Radar items integrated and functional

• Evidence for 7.1) to 7.4) : Short demonstration video

Milestone 8: Project completed

• Deliverables: Official closing of the project according to Catalyst Guidelines
• Acceptance Criteria:

8.1) Close-out Report and

8.2) Close-out Video

• Evidence for 8.1) and 8.2): Official Closeout Report & Closeout Video according to Catalyst Guidelines

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

Budget Milestone 1: Initiate Project, Processes & Team

• Project & Team Kick-off (5 hours x 250 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Back office (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 2,500 ADA (1)

Budget for Milestone 2: Completing Literature Review Phase

• Research (35 hours x 250 ADA = 8,750 ADA)
• Back office Assistance (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 10,000 ADA (3)

Budget for Milestone 3: Draft Report

• Report writing (60 hours x 250 ADA = 15,000 ADA)
• Back office support (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 16,250 ADA (8)

Budget for Milestone 4: Presentation slides completed

• Creating presentation (45 hours x 250 ADA = 11,250 ADA)
• Back office support (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 12,500 ADA (6)

Budget for Milestone 5: Final Report Completed

• Completing Report Draft (60 hours x 250 ADA = 15,000 ADA)
• Back office support (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 16,250 ADA (8)

Budget for Milestone 6: First Seminar held

• Plot and Design (10 hours x 250 ADA = 2,500 ADA)
• Presentation Production Lead (10 hours x 250 ADA = 2,500 ADA)
• Back office support (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 6,250 ADA (4)

Budget for Milestone 7: All Seminars held and Navigator and News Radar Items complete

• Video Production: (20 hours x 250 ADA = 5,000 ADA)
• Backoffice Support (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,2500 ADA)
• Total: 6,250 ADA (4)

Budget for Milestone 8: Project completed

• Quality Checking and Reporting
• Infrastructure and tools-share for the project (CAPEX & OPEX)
• Total: 5,000 ADA (2)

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

Project Lead

• Heinz Gassner, founder of DLT360 comes from 30+ years of experience in technology marketing and innovation leadership positions in renowned manufacturing companies. In addition to this, Heinz has education and experience in general business administration and regulatory matters and is just completing his latest M.Sc. in DLT/Blockchain at the University of Malta (with Dissertation in Decentralized Digital Identity area). Due to his long industry career, Heinz also has a strong personal network within the business and industry leadership community. Heinz has been engaged with CARDANO since 2017 and is an active player within the Catalyst community since the very first town hall. See LinkedIn

Senior Advisors

• Sven Van Kerckhoven, Prof Dr Sven Van Kerckhoven is the Vice-Dean for Education and an Assistant Professor of Business and Economics at the Brussels School of Governance. He previously was Head of the Department of Business and Economics at Vesalius College, a visiting researcher at Stanford University, a Rutherford fellow at the University of Warwick and a visiting professor at the University of Leuven. His research interests include global governance, political economics, international institutions, and international trade, on which he has published widely. He is a Senior Advisor on Policy and EU Matters to DLT360. See LinkedIn

• Michiel Van Roey (Senior Advisor), Michiel van Roey is a senior Belgian/EU lawyer, co-founder & general counsel of Profila as well as senior advisor at DLT360. Michiel holds a Master of Law from the University of Antwerp, the University of Bern, and the University of Virginia School of Law. Michiel heads the Data Privacy Workstream within DLT360’s legal segment. See LinkedIn

• Maury Shenk (Senior Advisor), Maury Shenk is a senior lawyer and investor, as well as a senior advisor at DLT360. Formerly Managing Partner at an International Law Firm in London. Maury holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from Stanford University. See LinkedIn

Legal and Policy Research

• Jonas Weinberger, co-founder of DLT360. Jonas has recently graduated from the Brussels School of Governance. Jonas is a regular contributor to DLT360’s legal workstream and is an active part of the DLT360 research team. Jonas is also our internal mastermind in design, presentation and video production. See LinkedIn

Project Management

• Guilherme Pereira, co-founder of DLT360, just completing his M.Sc. in Mechatronics in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Guilherme is active in our research team and is our program- and project management lead. See LinkedIn

Business and Industry Expert, Quality Control

• Thorsten Potebaum, co-founder and CTO of DLT360 is a very active player in the Cardano Catalyst community. Thorsten comes with a long industry experience in financial management, IT and cybersecurity (cybersecurity audit program manager). See LinkedIn

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

The following background is important for understanding our project-costing

• The DLT 360 Team is located in Europe, the UK and Brazil
• Europe-focused topics can be directly approached in Brussels
• Flexible on-demand access to experts in various disciplines (the DLT360 Domain Expert Team)
• Our Brazil location allows us to do intelligent and efficient cost-arbitration (back-office, project management, research assistance, design assistance and alike)