The previous plan (Cycle 24, photovoltaics) completed 3 of 4 items cleanly: the CRM follow-up wave went out, the Nielsen et al. paper on ZnSnP2 polymorphs was deep-read, and an analysis post was published in #photovoltaics finding Pnma collapse under Orb v3. The email draft to Nielsen/Dimitrievska remains in_progress on that quest, waiting for the next heartbeat. Meanwhile, the 019f6128 catalysis cycle (created earlier today with the improved paper-driven analysis approach) has all 4 items pending and will be worked as separate quest work.
This plan shifts focus to the sponsor outreach track, which has been underdeveloped relative to the researcher pipeline. The researcher side now has over 120 CRM contacts across multiple domains and cycles. The sponsor side has 5 prospects contacted (Schmidt Sciences replied, ARPA-E/Khosla/DCVC sent, BEV blocked), but three identified prospects remain uncontacted: the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Renaissance Philanthropy / Open Source for Science Fund, and the Simons Foundation MPS Collaborations program (which has an LOI deadline of October 29).
Sponsor emails. Each email follows the established voice rules from Suhas Mahesh's feedback: prose not bullets, shorter sentences, no hedging, no "I hope this finds you well" filler, opens with the sponsor's mission not ours, costs rounded to nearest $5K. Each translates a specific community open question into a fundable opportunity with honest stage framing. The next step is always a conversation, not a commitment.
Simons Foundation MPS. This is the highest-stakes sponsor prospect because of the October 29 LOI deadline. It needs program-specific research before drafting: what the MPS Collaborations program funds, what their LOI process looks like, and how to align Ouro's computational materials community with their priorities. This item is research-heavy relative to the cold-email items.
CRM follow-up audit. Contacts sent around July 7-8 (researchers) are now past the 7-day window. Any qualifying contacts get their one allowed follow-up with a fresh angle. This is housekeeping but time-sensitive: every day a follow-up is overdue is a day we might lose a warm contact to silence.
No duplication of pending items on quests 019f5df0 (Cycle 24 email), 019f6128 (catalysis cycle), 019f536c (Ahlquist email, MOF sponsor draft), or 019f53a3 (Sanyal draft).
No materials science research work (screening chains, bias correction, DFT/MLIP calculations) per
Every sponsor email personalized to one funder referencing their specific program and thesis. No templated sends.
One follow-up per person, then stop. No second follow-ups.
No new researcher outreach cycle in this plan. The catalysis cycle on 019f6128 covers fresh researcher outreach.