1. Research Retreat

The Impact Evaluator Research Retreat is a two-week intensive program targeting researchers, practitioners, and innovators in the field of impact evaluation, mechanism design, and public goods funding. This Research Retreat aims to bring together diverse perspectives to deeply explore the IE framework as outlined in the Network Goods paper by Protocol Labs¹ , with Deep Funding³ serving as a specialized case study.

Topics covered during the Research Retreat include the IE mechanism design and pilot insights, algorithmic diversity and generalization principles, and extending existing IE frameworks to new contexts. Participants will collaborate on research, prototyping, and developing open-source implementations.

Selected applicants will participate at no cost, with meals and accommodations provided. Participants are responsible for their travel arrangements; however, need-based travel scholarships are available upon request

The Impact Evaluator Research Retreat is a grant-funded, non-profit initiative focused purely on research advancement and community building.

2. Call for Applications

2.1 Research Tracks

The Research Retreat will focus on three primary research tracks:

• IE Mechanism and Pilot Insights: A thorough discussion of the IE framework, its design, and applications. Reflections on pilot implementations, highlighting successes, challenges, and lessons learned. "Meta Evaluation": How to evaluate impact evaluators.
• Algorithmic Diversity and Generalization: Investigating what makes measurement and evaluation algorithms diverse, fair, and robust, and how they can be generalized across different contexts. Studying various algorithms to identify unifying design principles that enable adaptability. Exploring how scientific fields such as artificial intelligence and game theory can help develop better functions.
• Extending IE to New Contexts: Leveraging insights in IE design to apply specialized frameworks to different graph structures, with a focus on contribution graphs. Exploring how changing domain-specific scopes influence measurement, evaluation, and reward functions.

2.2 Participant Profile

We're seeking a diverse group of participants including:

• Implementation-focused developers who can quickly prototype and build
• Data scientists and engineers with strong analysis and pipeline expertise
• Mechanism designers with public goods funding experience
• Game theory and cryptoeconomics researchers
• Impact measurement specialists familiar with credit assignment challenges
• Science communicators who can effectively share findings and ideas
• Both experienced practitioners and newcomers to the crypto/PGF space

2.3 Apply

Applications are open. Please apply here. We will be selecting 20-25 participants for this Research Retreat program.

3. Venue

The Impact Evaluator Research Retreat will take place in Iceland, providing an environment conducive to deep thinking, collaboration, and research. The location offers comfortable accommodations, spacious working areas, and natural surroundings to inspire creativity and focus.

The venue features dedicated spaces for group sessions, breakout rooms for specialized tracks, and common areas for informal discussions and networking. All meals and accommodations will be provided for the duration of the two-week program.

Full venue details will be shared with selected participants. The Research Retreat is scheduled for July 26th to Aug 10th 2025.

4. About the Host

The Impact Evaluator Research Retreat is organized by a coalition of researchers and practitioners dedicated to advancing the state of impact evaluation and public goods funding mechanisms. Our organizing team brings together expertise from distributed systems, mechanism design, cryptoeconomics, and public goods research.

We are committed to advancing open knowledge, decentralized science, and innovative approaches to evaluating and funding impactful work. This Research Retreat builds on previous research initiatives in the space, including the Network Goods paper and Deep Funding implementation work.

4.1 Expected Outcomes

The Research Retreat aims to produce several key outcomes:

• A comprehensive framework for reasoning about impact evaluators (design principles, robustness metrics)
• Case studies documenting IE implementations "in the wild" (e.g., Deep Funding)
• Development of new IE scopes, measurement, evaluation, and reward functions
• Bridges between impact evaluation research and academia/science
• Open-source code, academic papers, and accessible write-ups
• Decentralized science approaches for impact evaluation

4.2 Organizing Committee

• Juan Benet - Founder, Protocol Labs
• David Dao - Chief Scientist Officer, GainForest.Earth
• Sejal Rekhan - Innovation Catalyst, Allo.Capital
• Nidhi Harihar - Co-Founder, VoiceDeck
• Devansh Mehta - AI, Public Goods & Governance Lead @ Ethereum Foundation

4.3 Contact

For questions or further information, please email:
ie.researchretreat@gmail.com