Schedule

Deadline for submission: 5  February 2023 (This is a hard deadline. There will be any extensions.)
Announcement of the decisions: March 1, 2023 

Criteria

Applications will be accepted from individuals, groups, or commercial developers. Any member of MAJ or any person belonging to a sponsor company, apart from those on the vetting committee, is eligible to apply for and receive an award. In principle, the maximum amount of a grant will be ¥250,000, but in certain circumstances and with permission from the executive board, that amount may be increased.

The application must:

1. Describe the functionality. 

2. Explain how the functionality would solve a specific problem.

3. Provide a timeline for its development, which includes specific times to report progress along with the target starting dates of the alpha and beta stages, and projected maintenance costs as future versions of the core Moodle code are released.

4. Provide a chronology concerning attempts at development so far. 

5. Specify the desired amount of support and provide a rough breakdown of how the funds would be spent. (Including any indirect expenses related to the project.) 

6. Specify the expected number of users of the functionality. 

7. Include your data, CV, previous development experience, MAJ membership type, and membership expiry date.

8. Provide the URL where the resultant product of your previous grant is released (only if you are a previous awardee).

9. Note how many people are currently using the MAJ-sponsored research if you are applying for continuing assistance (only if you are a previous awardee).

Applications will receive particularly favorable consideration if they:

10. Provide functionality that is particularly needed in Japan. 

11. The project contributes to pedagogy development by taking advantage of Moodle's features. 

12. Build a closer relationship between Moodle Japan and Moodle HQ (i.e., involves an internship, visit, or coordination with Moodle HQ)

13. Show a plan for ongoing maintenance and improvement without continued MAJ support.

Procedure

a. The awardee will receive the amount determined by the judging committee. (We assume that the funds would mainly go towards paying for time spent on the development, although other uses, such as paying for hosting services or travel to Moodle Headquarters, etc., could also be considered legitimate uses.)

b. Priority will be given to projects that would improve the functionality for use in Japan or other Asian areas. 

c. Applications may be made in either Japanese or English

d. See the MAJ site (=this page) for the guidelines and application deadline.

e. The vetting panel shall vet all applications.

f. The resultant product must be released as GPL code and posted for distribution on the moodle.org plugins database or any appropriate Moodle Japan sites within one year of acceptance. It is expected that the grant-subsidized project results will be reported/presented in the subsequent Moodle Moot, and a one-page report of research results in A4 size will be submitted at the same time. In the one-page report, please itemize how the money was spent and, ideally, attach receipt copies.

g. After you write your proposal in a word processor, you can just paste it into the application form at the link below.

Apply here.