Steven Smethurst

Steven Smethurst

Steven Smethurst is a Vancouver based Maker, Hacker, Coder, Artist, and all around great guy!

Idea 033 - AI Grant Writing

2 minute read

This post is part of the 100 project ideas project. #The100DayProject. I am looking for feedback. Comment below or DM me via social media Instagram, Twitter.

One Line Pitch

Use AI to help with labor intensive grant writing

Description

This idea is based on a few assumptions

  • AI is going to x2 to x10 worker productivity - I am using AI assistance tech every day now, and I can show a measurably productivity boost using these tools. Fewer people can do more with less.
  • The industries that are going to be most affected by this are industries with a high amount of HUMAN workload where it takes a lot of people’s time and brain power to do the work.
  • In the industrial revolution human mussel was augmented with mechanical mussel. The AI revolution will augment the human brain mussel with AI tools.
  • Industries that have a huge amount of recorded output from human brain mussel will have the best data to draw data that can be fed into the AI tools. (where the “gold” is at)
    • Industries that have lots and lots of paperwork, where humans toil away making more paperwork are industries that are ripe for adding AI augmented tools to the existing humans.
  • Think grant writing, and regulatory systems, quoting, bidding, etc…
    • There are people whose whole job is to write grants and apply for money from different trusts and governments.

The Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) is a tax incentive grant provided by the Canadian government. This grants incentives to businesses to do risky research and development that they wouldn’t normally do by providing tax incentives. Anywhere from 15%-35% of your workforce budget can be covered by SR&ED grants. It’s a big deal for small businesses and because of this grant I am willing to take on riskier projects.

The reporting for the grant is onerous. When done to the expectations of the Canadian government it can consume 8-10 hours a month. 100 hours a year, or a full man month of effort.

We have over a decade of SR&ED reports and 10+ years of daily standup meeting notes. I assume most other companies that apply for the SR&ED grants have similar notes.

I suggest creating a SR&ED consulting firm. Work with companies to create the SR&ED reports and submit them on their behalf to the Canadian government. Then use this data to help build and train AI tools that will allow for the generation of the SR&ED with significantly less effort than is currently needed.

The better you are at generating SR&ED reports and successfully getting the grants from the Canadian government the more businesses will want to work with you. The more data you get and can use to improve the tools.

Eventually this tool could be expanded to work with many different grant types. Arts grants, building proposals, academic grants

Prior art

Market

Huge, any business that needs to create SR&ED, any academic applying for research grants.

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