Please describe your proposed solution

<u>Introduction:</u>

Energy production and consumption are key cornerstones of human history and development. Nevertheless, the current climate crisis has forced our societies to take action as a whole in order to reduce our environmental impact and, in the mid/long run, make our planet a better place to live for all species, not only humans. This is a titanic endeavor considering the power that oil companies and cartels have on the worldwide economy.

One of the most promising energetic solutions is Green Hydrogen (GH). GH is produced with renewable energies (like wind or solar) by splitting water molecules into the constituent oxygen and hydrogen parts. This hydrogen can then be used to produce energy in a sustainable fashion. One of the most pressing issues faced by the GH industry is the storage and transport of GH (a fairly explosive gas). For this reason, hydrogen is usually transported as Ammonia (a molecule containing one nitrogen atom and 3 hydrogen atoms). Ammonia can then be cracked in-situ into its constituents giving back GH for its intended energetic uses.

<u>Solution:</u>

We propose to research novel catalysts for Ammonia cracking and publish those results as Open-Access research in High Impact Journals, while also organizing several live events to spread awareness about Cardano blockchain and the actions made possible by Cardano's blockchain.

<u>How will we do this?:</u>

For our research we will be basing the discovery of potential new ammonia cracking catalysts and the description of the expected properties on quantum-chemical calculations and analysis. For a quick technical overview, this will mainly include Density Functional Theory, Extended Tight Binding DFT and post-Hartree-Fock calculations in order to study the energetic barriers and kinetics associated with ammonia cracking for GH production, on various catalytic configurations. In this regard our main study systems will be 2D layers of metals and/or graphene, doped with different metals and semi-metals.

For marketing purposes, we will be organizing and leading several live events (2) in partnership with the Andres Bello University (UNAB) in order to extend the outreach of Cardano and our research. The live events will incorporate:

1) A presentation about Cardano and Project Catalyst by a member of a our team.

2) A presentation about our research financed by Cardano by a member of our team.

3) Other presentations on the topic of catalyst, 2D material and green energy by expert invited speakers from UNAB and other research institutions.

4) Coffee-breaks after each presentation in order to promote communication between actors and further personal discussing of blockchain technology, Cardano and Science.

All presentations will be recorded and uploaded to the Cardano blockchain to secure that knowledge for ever. The final published version of the research paper will also be uploaded to the Cardano blockchain.

<u>Target Audience:</u>

Target audience includes the general public but is focused more on academic public and industry related personas. Our Open-Access research will be published in the best journals giving great visibility to the first Cardano-financed research on renewable energies.

<u>How can we demonstrate our impact?</u>

It will be easy to measure the success and impact of our proposed solution. The following KPI will be considered.

1) Publication of an Open-Access research paper in a High Impact Journal.

2) Hosting of 2 distinct live events at the beginning and end of our project.

3) Photos and videos about the presentations, and counting of assistance to the events.

We are confident that the Cardano community can help discover new amazing things in the fields of renewable energies.

<u>Lets change the world together!</u>

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

<u>Positive impact on the Cardano community:</u>

One of the key aspects of Cardano marketing is based on its scientific approach to blockchain development by renowned researchers and universities, making it by far the most descentralized and secure blockchain protocol in existence. Our project will directly address this area by producing the first scientific research on a criticial topic like renewable energy, fully financed by Cardano coupled with an extensive marketing effort for the network and the obtained results. With this we will not only make the news from a scientific perspective, but we will also help broaden the range of options for scientists, and make Cardano a viable option for newcomers and seasoned researchers. In general, this will give the Cardano community as a whole much more visibility outside of the traditional realms of finances, DEFI, and NFTs.

<u>Measuring our impact:</u>

We will be measuring our impact in the following aspects.

1) Impact Factors of the Journal we publish in (we will be publishing in High Impact Factor Journals) ensuring that the published research will have a wide audience, exposing Cardano to the widespread scientific Community.

2) Assistance to our events: We will be counting the assistance to the events we host with an online form in order to register information about our guests, including: Occupation, age, gender, origin and others.

<u>How will we share the outputs of our project?</u>

As mentioned before, we will be publishing everything in Open-Access Journals, allowing for knowledge to be freely disseminated as it should. At the same time, we will be hosting several live events in partnership with Andres Bello University, showcasing the history, technology and potential of Cardano for various ends.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

The Cardano and Project Catalyst community can be certain that the fund in this proposals will be managed properly and that the funds will be used accordingly to the overview and breakdown presented in this proposal.

We can logically back this claim up with the following aspects:

1) The project is lead by ADATOMS NFTs CEO Andrés Halabi Díaz who has already proposed, won and successfully completed a Catalyst Project before in Fund9. You can check all the details of the work here. The first Catalyst experience of our team was a great instance and we will for sure be applying all the learned lessons in this new project.

2) Dayan Paez Hernández, a full time PhD Program Professor at UNAB, is the Research Lead. Dr. Paez-Hernández is a seasoned researchers with over 30 published works with expertise in Quantum Chemistry, solids and extended systems, as well as computational chemistry and catalysis. His works have accrued over 1140 citations giving him an h-index of 20 showcasing the high impact of his research. You can check his ORCID ID here.

3) This project will be developed in collaboration with Andres Bello University researchers, making this project a formal approximation between the Cardano ecosystem and the latin american academic ecosystem. Furthermore, Andres Bello University is considered one of the biggest universities in Chile and ranks consistently among the top Universities and Research Centers from Chile and LATAM. This naturally provides a solid second layer of protection and accountability for proper project development.

What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1: <u>Milestone 1:</u> Literature Review and first live event planning (Month 3).

<u>A. Milestones Outputs</u>

1. State-of-the-art document: A comprehensive literature review on ammonia cracking catalysts, with a special focus on 2D catalysts.
2. Potential catalyst candidates shortlist: From the previous literature research, a few system will be chosen in order to expand the current knowledge on their catalytic properties. This shortlist will be included in the Start-Of-The-Art report from (1.1)
3. Programming of the first live event: a basic programming for the first live event will be presented including a guests list for invitations, a topic lists for the presentations and a basic schedule.

<u>B. Acceptance Criteria</u>

In order for the first milestone to be approved, beforementioned items must be present, including: the full technical report on the state of the art, a list of candidate study systems (mostly 2D potential catalysts) and a schedule/programming for the first live event must be presented. The invitations for the guest speakers to the first live event will also be sent in this point.

<u>C. Evidence of milestone completion</u>

As evidence for the first milestone, the following will be presented:

1) An in-depth document with the State-Of-The-Art (including a shortlist of research candidate systems) uploaded to the Cardano blockchain as a .pdf.

2) The basic scheduling to the first live event will also be made public to the Catalyst team and community, including the invited guests speakers.

Milestone 2: <u>Milestone 2:</u> Ammonia Cracking Catalysts Research and first live event hosting (Month 11).

<u>A. Milestones Outputs</u>

1. Hosting of the first live event according to the planning in Milestone 1. (During month 4)
2. Ammonia Cracking Catalyst Research ready for publication uploaded to a pre-print service prior to the peer-review process. (From month 4 to month 11)
3. Planning of the second and final live event for presenting results (Months 10-11).

<u>B. Acceptance Criteria</u>

For this milestone to be approved, the proper hosting of the promised live event must be assessed. For this, the online forms, photographs and videos of the event can be taken into consideration, as well as the list of invited and accepted speakers present for the event.

Secondly, a finalized research on novel 2D ammonia cracking catalysts must be uploaded to ChemArXiv or similar repositories as well as the Cardano blockchain. This pre-print must include the funding information and Cardano catalyst related information too.

Finally, a second live event must be planned where the results of the research will be presented. Just as the first event, this second event will also include guest speakers related to the area, as well as presentations from our team related to Cardano, Project Catalyst and the funded research.

<u>C. Evidence of milestone completion</u>

As evidence for the second milestone, the following will be presented:

1) Photographs and videos of the live event, with guest speakers and speakers of our team.

2) Pre-print full research uploaded to ChemArXiv and the Cardano blockchain.

3) The basic scheduling to the second live event will also be made public to the Catalyst team and community, including the invited guests speakers.

Final Milestone: <u>Final Milestone:</u> Ammonia Cracking Catalysts Research Open-Access publishing and Final Live event hosting (Month 12).

<u>A. Milestones Outputs</u>

1. Hosting of the final live event according to the planning in Milestone 2.
2. Ammonia Cracking Catalyst Research publication in an Open-Access High Impact Journal.

<u>B. Acceptance Criteria</u>

For this milestone to be approved, the proper hosting of the Final live event must be assessed. For this, the online forms, photographs and videos of the event can be taken into consideration, as well as the list of invited and accepted speakers present for the event.

Finally, the full research must be submitted to a High Impact Journal in Open-Access format

<u>C. Evidence of milestone completion</u>

As evidence for the final milestone, the following will be presented:

1) Photographs and videos of the live event, with guest speakers and speakers of our team.

2) Proof of Submission to the selected journal (each journal provides a .pdf type summary of the submission, this will be presented)

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

Our project team consists of highly skilled individuals with expertise in various domains. Each team member brings unique perspectives and capabilities to ensure the successful implementation of the project. Here are the team members and their roles:

1. Andrés Halabi Diaz - ADATOMS (Physical Chemistry PhD(c)., machine learning and Density Functional Theory expert):

• Role: Project lead, Density Functional Theory &amp; blockchain expert.
• Twitter Profile: ADATOMS
• Previous Work: ADATOMS has a strong background in education and has been involved in content creation and curation related to natural sciences within the Cardano community. We have succesfully completed a FUND9 project overdeliverying on every aspect of the project. Also has strong expertise on developing machine-learning based predictive models for various chemical and physical activities, based on quantum-chemical methods.

2. Jose Burgos (Physical Chemistry PhD(c), expert in extended physical systems and 2D-layered materials):

• Role: Extended-systems researcher. Main researcher on everything related to 2D materials and physical properties.
• Previous Work: Physisist with experience in extended systems (solids), clusters and computational methods. Currently researching about metallic bidimensional systems for his PhD thesis. Also has experience with blockchain technology.

3. Dayan Páez-Hernández (Physical Chemistry PhD, Post-Doc and expert in quantum chemistry, with experience in catalysts development):

• Role: Lead Researcher. Hartree-Fock and Post-HF methods expert. Quantum methods and catalysis expert.
• Researcher Profile: Dayan Páez-Hernández
• Previous Work: Chemist with expertise in physical-chemical and thermodynamic areas, as well as profound research experience involving quantum mechanics, quantum-chemistry and computational methods applied to catalysts and solids.

Our team has a proven track record of successfully carrying and developing self-funded and Catalyst-funded projects in the Cardano blockchain. We have engaged with the team members and have direct lines of communication established with each of them. They have expressed their commitment and availability to contribute to the project.

At this stage, we do not plan to recruit additional team members. The existing team possesses the necessary skills and expertise to complete the project successfully.

We have actively participated in the Cardano community engaging in discussions and sharing ideas with the people. This allows us to stay updated on the latest developments, collaborate with other community members, and leverage the available technical resources.

The project lead has a proven track record of contributions within the Cardano ecosystem, showcasing their expertise and commitment. We are confident in the ability of our team to fulfill their respective roles and deliver high-quality outcomes.

All team members have given their consent to be included in this proposal, and know that the provided information is publicly available.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

The following cost breakdown has been made adhering strictly to the guidelines presented in the Fund Rules.

1) Open-Access publishing costs: ₳ 10.000 (Ten thousand ADA). This is allowed according to the rules under "Material Costs".

<u>Description :</u> In order to make the results of our research and work available for the widespread Cardano and global community, our research will be published in top tier Open-Access Journals. This type of publication usually has an associated cost of about USD $ 2.000 to USD $6.000.

2) Live events planning, riding tickets: ₳ 5.000 (Five thousand ADA). This is allowed according to the rules under "Material Costs".

<u>Description:</u> We intend to have both live events to be of the highest level, including top-tier and vegan friendly coffee breaks (will be externalized if possible). This costs also include the chance of paying for bus-fare and ride tickets for high-level guests. This potential bus-fare will only be available for national speakers in order to optimize the budget of the project.

3) Hardware and equipment: ₳ 20.000 (Twenty thousand ADA). This is allowed according to the rules under "Overhead costs"

<u>Description:</u> This research will be based on high level quantum chemical calculations and molecular simulations. For this, we require for each team member to have access to a sufficiently powerful computer to run those calculations, at least at the medium level of complexity. Thanks to our partnership with Andres Bello University, we will have access to their calculation clusters for some of the required tasks.

4) Labor costs: ₳ 37.000 (Thirty seven thousand ADA). This is allowed according to the rules under "Labor Costs".

<u>Description</u>: All the involved researchers are PhD level scientists with vast experience in quantum chemical calculations and molecular simulations. On average each researcher will be charging around 1/5 of the median expected salary for a researcher with such qualifications in Chile. You can double check this information in the following news article from Chile here.

We will be working in partnership with the "Universidad Andres Bello" (UNAB, https://www.unab.cl/en/).

UNAB is the biggest university in Chile, and is constatly ranked among the top 5 education and research centers in the country and LATAM.

All the team members are either PhD students or Professors in the university. For the beforementioned public events, we will leverage UNAB's popularity and widespread outreach for maximizing the attention driven to Cardano and our research.

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

As it was clearly demonstrated in the Budget Breakdown section, the team is asking for a reasonable amount of ADA to be used in detailed instances.

For transparency, we would like to remark the fact that each team member will be getting a salary of around USD $400, which is about 1/5 of the salary a PhD could expect in our country. You can verify this information in the following national news article here. Clearly the team is asking for much less funds that would be the standard in the industrial/academic environment for our country. This is only because the team is highly motivated with this research topic and want to bring real value to the academic and Cardano ecosystem, as we recognize that bridging the gap between the two could prove to be extremely beneficial for both parties.