I’m generally not in favor of funding research & development. In my opinion, R&D doesn’t present actionable deliverables and tends to bundle together many tasks of various complexity, size, and benefit.
Generally, In the end, the community has a hard time figuring out what exactly is being worked on and to what extend the deliverables fit the right goals.
I think that’s not what R&D is about. If you do research, we (the community) should know what paper you plan to publish and how it benefits zcash. Also, I’d like to know who will review your research and verify its correctness. At this moment, it’s unclear what contacts you have with other researchers in the industry.
If it is about development, then we should know what product you intend to create. We should have a design, technical specifications, and some kind of business plan.
As it stands, the proposal is a rather long list of items. In the past, this has led to underwhelming results where only the small tasks were delivered.
You are looking for a 1-year commitment. Personally, I’d need to do more due diligence before backing your proposal.