RFC-0002: Apply models and routes

This document outlines the Request for Comments (RFC) process for the apply models and routes introduced in v0.2.0 of the CommonGrants protocol.

Process

Participation The RFC process is open to all members of the community. We’re particularly interested in feedback from:
- Grantors and grant seekers
- Grant management platforms interested in adopting the protocol
- Developers interested in building cross-platform tools for grants
Format
- Comments will be accepted in a dedicated thread on the SimplerGrants discourse forum.
- We will respond directly to each comment in the thread to ensure all feedback is considered.
Timeline:
- Comment Period: Open through October 1, 2025.
- Feedback Review: After the comment period closes, we will review and incorporate feedback in future versions of the protocol.

Scope

We’re interested in your thoughts on the new models and routes introduced in v0.2.0 of the CommonGrants protocol to support the “apply” workflow.

Apply routes

Review the v0.2.0 OpenAPI docs to review the newly introduced routes.

Competitions: GET /common-grants/competitions/{compId} View competition details for a given funding opportunity
Applications:
- POST /common-grants/applications/start Start a new application
- GET /common-grants/applications/{appId} View an application
- PUT /common-grants/applications/{appId}/form/{formId} Respond to an application form
- GET /common-grants/applications/{appId}/form/{formId} Get a form response
- PUT /common-grants/applications/{appId}/submit Submit an application
Forms:
- GET /common-grants/forms List all forms
- GET /common-grants/forms/{formId} View a form

Some specific questions we’re interested in:

Should we support a “direct apply” route? To allow API consumers to submit all of the details for an application in a single request.
Are there other common application-related operations that we should support as API endpoints?

Apply models and schemas

In addition to the routes listed above, we’ve added several schemas to support the “apply” workflow.

Competition: A distinct application process or period for a given funding opportunity
Form: A form that is part of an application process
Application: A submission of a proposed project, people, and organization to a competition
Form response: A response to a form

Areas for input:

Are these models missing any fields that are used consistently across grant platforms?
Are there any other models that we should introduce to support the “apply” workflow?

Application data mapping

We’ve also introduced several models to support mapping the contents of an application form to standard CommonGrants data models, which lays the groundwork for pre-filling data across forms and applications.

Proposal: A proposal for a funding opportunity, i.e. what individual application forms can be mapped to
Organization: An organization affiliated with a proposal
Person: A person affiliated with a proposal
Mapping: A format for mapping a form response to a CommonGrants data model (i.e. proposal)

Areas for input:

Are there other common application questions that should be reflected in the proposal model?
Are there other types of common transformations that the mapping model should support?

Form library proof of concept

Building on the application data mapping, we also introduced a proof of concept for a form library. This library demonstrates how we can use the form mappings to translate and pre-fill data across forms.

Form library: A library of forms that have been mapped to the CommonGrants data models
Form pre-fill playground: A playground for testing how data can be pre-filled across forms used CommonGrants

Guiding questions include:

Are there other forms you’d like us to prioritize mapping in the next version of this form library?
What other tools or features would make this form library more useful?