The BGI Nexus Ideation Challenge welcomes thinkers, creators, developers, and changemakers from around the world to share ideas for accelerating the path to Beneficial General Intelligence.   Anyone can take part, not just those with a technical background!

What is an RFP Idea?

  We’re collecting ideas that could become future RFPs (Requests for Proposals - public calls for proposals that offer specific solutions) for AI projects or tooling. Ideas should identify a clear problem, outline a potential approach or technology to solve it, and show how it contributes to beneficial and ethical AI development. The best ideas will be developed with the community into full RFPs and opened for proposals.   Tip: Highly specific or clearly implementable ideas are more likely to stand out. Broad concepts can also succeed if they include a strong plan for execution or scaling.   We also recommend contributions of ideas that cost up to $100k to create. Very large scope, visionary ideas may be submitted, but the likelihood of winning is higher for a smaller budget as we are looking for ideas that are within our capabilities to fund.  

Step 1: Submit Your Idea

Every great RFP starts with a compelling idea. We encourage you to submit your idea on this page, providing a brief description - no obligations attached. If your idea falls under any of the BGI RFP challenges and is selected for RFP development, you will receive a reward of $1000 in tokens as recognition for your contribution. If the idea reaches the stage of a published RFP, you will receive another $1000 in tokens.

Step 2: Filtering

Ideas will go through a community review until there is a small number of high quality ideas in each category, which will then go through to a community vote. The filtering process will involve two layers of community filtering. We will invite reviewers from the BGI community to do a quick filter, then a smaller expert committee will do a further round of filtering. At the end, a small number of the highest quality ideas will go through to a community vote.  

Step 3: RFP Development

Once an idea has been awarded, we move into the RFP writing phase -.defining the problem, setting goals, describing the expected outcomes, and outlining how proposals will be evaluated. Depending on the complexity of the proposal and your preferred level of involvement, we may:

• Offer you, as the originator of the idea, the opportunity to develop (or collaborate on developing) the RFP
• Invite another interested community member to take on the task.
• In cases of complex RFPs, host a small competition to select the best RFP Design Proposal.

We will define the scope, requirements, and rewards for the RFP development process. Rewards for developing an RFP are offered on top of the rewards for ideation. Once finalized, the RFP will be published with a clearly defined maximum award for project proposals and will be opened for submissions.   Join us in shaping the future of Beneficial General Intelligence!  

Timeline

Submissions Open: Monday 20th October Submissions Close: Monday 27th October 11:00 UTC Community filtering: 28th October - 15th November Final filtering by community-led committee: 15th-22nd November Final week of November: Community vote (exact method TBD)  

Categories

1. Social and Environmental Impact

Ideas in this category should explore how AI (or supporting technologies) can generate positive, measurable change for people and the planet. This might include innovations that address global challenges - climate resilience, education, equality, or social coordination - but we encourage specific, well-defined ideas that go beyond general aspirations. Examples:

• AI tools for regenerative agriculture
• Counterfeit medicine detection
• Microplastic source attribution

2. Governance

This category welcomes ideas that advance decentralized decision-making, transparency, and coordination, especially within ecosystems like BGI Nexus, DAOs, or open research communities. These could involve process innovations, technical tools, or frameworks that make collective intelligence and community participation more effective. Examples:

• Coordination tools that improve accountability and inclusion in DAOs
• Knowledge graph-based systems for community-driven decision-making
• Experimental governance pilots for AI development projects

3. Safety and Ethics

The Safety and Ethics track seeks ideas that support responsible AI development: practical tools or processes that help developers embed safety, transparency, and ethics into their workflows. These could include auditing mechanisms, interpretability tools, or new methods for aligning AI systems with human and environmental values. Examples:

• Open-source auditing or risk analysis tools
• Plug-ins for ethical AI design

Criteria Reviewers of ideas will be looking for originality, practicality, feasibility (including feasibility within a reasonable budget), and contribution to beneficial AI in line with the Nexus vision.   Waiver When you submit an idea, you're contributing to a shared pool of innovation that advances our collective mission, meaning that it could be developed by anyone and shared as an Open Source project. You waive intellectual property rights - but SingularityNET, BGI Nexus, or Deep Funding does not take ownership of your ideas. The idea will belong to the global community!