Research Proposal Loop

The artifact is a research proposal; the feedback signal is ScholarEval (literature-grounded Soundness + Contribution) turned into a 0-100 grade by a Judge against the fixed rubric.md. Each iteration evaluates → grades → revises until the grade clears <pass_threshold> or the budget runs out.

North star. Clearing the threshold is the stopping condition, not the goal. The goal is the strongest, most novel, genuinely publishable version the proposal can honestly become — every revision should ask "does this make the work more significant and more novel?", not just "does this patch a flaw?". This is grounded ambition: the lift comes from better-justified methods, a sharper-but-defensible novelty claim, and stronger baselines, all backed by real retrieved evidence. Overclaiming lowers the grade (evidence gate + Contribution axis); it never raises it.