For projects that have already received a grant before (whether through Gov or Partners Fund) - the repeat proposal has to be exceptional IMO. I don’t think the second proposal basically repeating the first one makes much sense. Here are my thoughts on the exceptions where a second grant may work:
- The first grant was wildly successful and the protocol continues to grow with no slowdown: in this case, a substantially smaller grant (let’s say, <50% of the first) to continue incentives might be justified
- Some amount of time has passed since the first grant, and there’s a strong reason to restart incentives (something like - the protocol managed to retain most of the growth the incentives brought, but there are new opportunities on the horizon worth capitalizing on for more growth)
- A new approach with new methods & goals. E.g. the first grant was about liquidity incentives. With that bootstrapped, the second grant can be about achieving something different, e.g. improving the user experience, direct marketing to onboard users to Optimism, etc.
Likewise, as I mentioned previously, committees should also consider the effectiveness of similar types of proposals. E.g. if DEX A & DEX B ran some type of liquidity mining, and it was of limited benefit, then it doesn’t make sense granting DEX C with the same type of grant. At Cycle 8, 9, and going forward, we have to start being more selective about the grants, and targeting the types of programs that lead to sustained adoption and activity across a diversity of usecases. Also, being mindful of what the bottlenecks are. E.g. there’s plenty of liquidity on Optimism now given it’s early state, but not enough users & other usecases to leverage this.