VFDP-7 Allocation of 1% of token supply to core contributors at Newcastle University

TL/DR: Proposal to mint 1% of the token supply to split evenly 3 ways between Matt Abbott, Johannes Reynisson, and Peter Banks as core contributors to VITA-FAST

Background: Matt Abbott, Johannes Reynisson, and Peter Banks have been involved in VITA-FAST since its inception. As a business development manager at Newcastle University, Matt was integral in garnering support from the University to create the very first tokenized research project. Johannes Reynisson was previously voted in to provide essential medicinal chemistry expertise in VFDP-4. Prior to this vote, he was still contributing to the project since the beginning, but was limited in terms of the amount of time that could be spent on the project due to the previous agreement with Keele University. Peter Banks runs the High Throughput Screening Facility at Newcastle University and has been one of the key scientists performing the hands-on research in the lab.

Proposal Details: A proposal was made on Discord to mint 1% of the token supply to give to Matt Abbott, Johannes Reynisson, and Peter Banks (split evenly, 3 ways). As illustrated above, all of them are core contributors to the project. Providing this token allocation serves as recognition of their hard work thus far, and will serve as long-term motivation to ensure the project has the best chance of success. The vesting schedule would follow the same as that of Viktor, which ends 2/12/2027.

The VITA-FAST token supply is uncapped, meaning that new tokens can be minted at any time, when incentives are deemed to be useful. Currently, ~73% of the token supply belongs to VitaDAO, ~6% belongs to Newcastle/Viktor, 10% was sold in the initial crowdsale, 10% in the LP, and 1.5% is in the treasury.

Conclusion: The proposal to provide key members of the VITA-FAST project with tokens is not only beneficial for alignment of incentives, but is also crucial for the adoption of this model by the broader scientific community. By showing how researchers can be involved in their projects both online and offline, it adds credibility to the entire project structure. In addition, by providing these incentives to these key members, it will allow them to be one step closer to the community, as they will be able to actively participate in the project in a new way, and will lead to improved communication between the VITA-FAST community and the core research team.