Here is my update following my conversation with the Program Officer for North America.
She suggested that our application be between USD 50,000 and USD 70,000. The funds are from the North American fund, but we have no geographical restriction to use them (the hire can be outside of the North American region, for example). If our first application is accepted, we can request a renewal based on the same grant application and budget. After one successful renewal, we will be eligible for the multi-year funding.
To @tfmorris's question regarding eligibility, the criteria are not strict. We need to demonstrate how the Wikimedia ecosystem relies on OpenRefine. Then, the fund must be used to support work on the integration with Wikidata or Wikimedia Commons.
@antonin_d I agree with your reading on the situation. We initially scoped our approach this way because @Ainali @ej2432 and I thought that any technical development was out of the scope of this call (as per this point on the grant page)
- Proposals that are primarily focused on large-scale software development are not eligible for review. Smaller-scale software development projects may be eligible for review in the Rapid Fund pending review from Community Resources and Technology department staff.
After discussing with the PO, we can allocate funds for a technical position, specifically for maintenance and not new software development. This means we can use the funds for bug fixes, general maintenance, and minor updates. A liaison role will also be in the scope of this call. However, with this new information and the available funds, I believe it would be more appropriate to tailor the proposal for a technical position. We will need to coordinate the application for the Commons extensions with @Andre_Costa from WMSE.
I will start drafting the application in this Google Document