# Support University of Oregon’s Intelligent Futures Lab (IF Lab) for DAO Governance Research

## TL;DR

- Fund a one-time **$10,000 USDC** research grant to the **Intelligent Futures Lab (IF Lab)** at the **University of Oregon** to advance rigorous, public research on **DAO governance**. 
- Outputs: peer-reviewed papers, public working notes, and a Nouns-focused research brief—**all open-access** and **acknowledging Nouns DAO**; one public talk + AMA for the Nouns community. 
- Lead investigator: **Dr. Alex Murray** (Assoc. Professor; Director, IF Lab), published in Organization Science, AMR, Research Policy; active DAO researcher and community participant. 
- Why Nouns: strengthens our role as a **governance R&D hub**, creates credible external scholarship we can cite in future proposals, and deepens ties with academia for efforts like **NounsCon**. 

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## Background: What is IF Lab?

**The Intelligent Futures Lab (IF Lab)** is a student- and faculty-led research group at the University of Oregon that studies how **emerging technologies** (AI, agents, blockchain) transform **organizing, collaboration, and governance**.
Focus areas relevant to Nouns:

- **Human–AI collaboration** in decision-making and coordination 
- **Agentic representation** (autonomous agents, synthetic stakeholders) 
- **Decentralized governance** (DAOs, tokenization, decentralized AI) 

**Director: Dr. Alex Murray**

- Research at the intersection of **decentralized governance, algorithmic organizing, and entrepreneurship** 
- Publications include: Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Research Policy, Business Horizons 

Lab site: [https://uoiflab.org/](https://uoiflab.org/)

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## Why Nouns DAO should fund this

1. **Governance as public good**: Independent, peer-reviewed research helps Nouns (and other DAOs) avoid cycles of folklore and purely anecdotal governance arguments. 
2. **Practical guidance**: We’ll receive **actionable briefs** synthesized from field studies/experiments—useful for parameter setting, contributor incentives, delegation programs, and cross-DAO collaboration. 
3. **Signal & legitimacy**: Acknowledgment in academic outputs puts Nouns in the footnotes of governance history, complementary to our goal of being a **living testbed** for DAO theory and practice. 
4. **Bridges to Researchers**: This creates a pipeline of scholars and content for future DAO research conference, workshops, and poster sessions. 

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## Deliverables

1. **One empirical study**: preprint/working paper + methods appendix; share anonymized dataset or simulated data where IRB/policies allow. 
2. **Public talk/AMA** with slides + recording for the community. 
3. **Acknowledgment**: “This research was supported by a grant from **Nouns DAO**” in outputs from this grant period. 

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## Budget & Payment

- **Amount**: **$10,000 USDC**, **one-time** grant. 
- **Use of funds**: RA time, data collection, research assistance, IRB/participant costs, open-access fees, hosting/pinning. 

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## Alignment with Nouns Vision

- Positions Nouns as a **governance R&D leader**, not just a grant-maker. 
- Creates **repeatable interfaces** between DAOs and academia. 

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## Contacts

- **IF Lab**: [https://uoiflab.org/](https://uoiflab.org/) 
- **Dr. Alex Murray** (Director, IF Lab; Associate Professor, University of Oregon): [amm16@uoregon.edu](http://amm16@uoregon.edu/)

Outcome: EXECUTED