SCIENCE FUNDING · OPEN SOURCE · EXPERIMENTAL

AI-Assisted Funding for Scientists and Open-Source Developers

Science DAO is developing and testing AI Internet-Meritocracy (AIIM), a system that evaluates documented scientific and software contributions and uses those assessments to allocate available donated funds.

The beta is live. The next milestone is a five-month public adversarial test.

A microscope and science lab vessels

AIIM in 20 seconds

1. Published work
Research, software, ORCID and GitHub records provide documented contributions.

↓ 2. AI-assisted evaluation
AIIM evaluates documented contributions using an experimental AI-assisted assessment process.

↓ 3. Funding allocation
Available donated funds are allocated using those assessments.

↓ 4. Payment & audit trail
Payment transactions can be inspected through the project’s transparency records.

Experimental: AI assessments are heuristic and can be wrong. Public testing, human oversight and independent criticism are part of the design.

How the pieces fit together

Science DAO is the umbrella project. AIIM is its main science and open-source funding system. Symbiote is a related AI-safety initiative.

Science DAO brand architecture preview

How the projects fit together
See the Science DAO brand architecture →

Current projects and status

OPERATIONAL BETA

AI Internet-Meritocracy

Develop AI software distributing funds to scientists, software authors, and marketers of science.

PUBLIC TESTING / EVIDENCE

Testing & Evidence

See how AIIM is being tested for reliability, reproducibility, and resistance to manipulation.

EXPERIMENTAL / IN DEVELOPMENT

Other Projects

Explore Science DAO’s secondary and experimental initiatives, including publishing and grants infrastructure.

Other problems we work on

01

Save Basic Science

02

Support Every Discovery

03

Protect Against Predatory Publishers

04

Funding for Scientists

05

Publishing in XML

06

Post-Moderation

The problem we are testing a solution to

Research funding usually depends heavily on proposals and institutional selection.

AIIM experiments with another approach: evaluating documented work and allocating available donated funds based on those assessments. Why test another funding model →

What AIIM is — and isn’t

AIIM is: a functioning beta; an experimental funding-allocation system; and an AI-assisted assessment process for documented work.

AIIM is not: a proven measurement of scientific impact; a replacement for all existing science funding; or fully decentralized yet.

Who we are & how we operate

World Science DAO is an online project developing DAO-based governance and funding tools for science and open-source software. Independent scrutiny: We invite researchers and specialists to challenge our claims and publish their conclusions independently. Review the project → It is not currently a separate incorporated charity; donations for the project are legally received and controlled by Victor Porton’s Foundation. See About Us, Product Status, and Key Contributors for current project information.

Support the project.

Victor Porton's photo

Founding member

Victor Porton is a mathematician and software developer and a founding member of World Science DAO. The Key Contributors page links to ORCID, Google Scholar, GitHub, publications, and source documents so readers can evaluate his work directly.