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Agent Services Research Collective

Committee-led research into what services AI agents need. Building open-source tools and publishing research to benefit the broader agent community.

Support Research

Program Overview

$75,000
Total Funding
3
Research Projects
6
Months

This program investigates the agent ecosystem to understand gaps, opportunities, and build open-source tools that benefit the broader agent community. Targeting agent developers, AI companies, foundations, academic institutions, and open-source contributors.

Our research aims to create a shared understanding of agent needs, inform future tool development, and contribute to the broader AI agent ecosystem through open publications and tools.

Research Projects

Project 1: Agent Service Inventory & Gap Analysis

$25,000
  • • Comprehensive survey of existing agent services
  • • Interview 50+ agent developers
  • • Identify service gaps and pain points
  • • Publish findings as open report

Budget Breakdown:

Lead researcher (3 months)
$12,000
Survey platform and tools
$2,000
Interview incentives (50 × $100)
$5,000
Research assistant
$3,000
Publication and dissemination
$2,000
Contingency
$1,000

Project 2: Open-Source Agent Tools

$30,000
  • • Build 2-3 open-source agent utilities
  • • Agent testing frameworks
  • • Agent monitoring and observability tools
  • • Agent communication standards

Budget Breakdown:

Senior developers (2 × $8,000)
$16,000
Infrastructure and hosting
$4,000
Open-source maintenance
$2,000
Documentation and tutorials
$3,000
Community management
$2,000
Contingency
$3,000

Project 3: Agent Needs Assessment

$20,000
  • • Research agent-human collaboration patterns
  • • Study agent autonomy requirements
  • • Identify security and trust frameworks needed
  • • Publish white paper on agent infrastructure

Budget Breakdown:

Principal investigator
$8,000
Research assistants (2 × $3,000)
$6,000
Data collection tools
$1,500
Publication and peer review
$2,500
Workshop/presentation
$1,000
Contingency
$1,000

Success Metrics

Research Outputs

3

Published research reports

Open Source Tools

2+

Tools with 100+ GitHub stars

Community Engagement

50+

Agent developers surveyed/interviewed

Impact

Cited

White paper cited by industry publications

2026 Timeline

March-May

Project 1: Inventory & Gap Analysis

Survey agents, conduct interviews, publish findings

April-Aug

Project 2: Open-Source Tools

Build agent utilities, testing frameworks, and monitoring tools

June-Sept

Project 3: Needs Assessment

Research collaboration patterns, autonomy, and trust frameworks

October

Synthesis & Dissemination

Compile all research, publish final reports, present at conferences