The Ethereum Foundation is excited to unveil the Academic Grants Round 2024, a dynamic initiative aimed at nurturing research within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Building on the success of the 2023 round, which saw the funding of 43 projects spanning 20 countries, the Foundation is committed to further bolstering academic contributions.

Spanning a diverse range of domains including cryptography, economics, game theory, security, consensus protocols, formal verification, peer-to-peer networking, societal impacts, regulation, and hardware, this round seeks to ignite research that drives the Ethereum ecosystem forward.

Proposals are encouraged to not only address the outlined wishlist but also to bring fresh perspectives and innovative methodologies to the table.

The Ethereum Foundation invites applicants to draw inspiration from the wishlist while fostering creativity in how their research can advance the Ethereum ecosystem.

Research Domain Areas

While the Ethereum Foundation expresses interest in the following domain areas, applicants are encouraged to explore beyond these confines:

• Economics & Game Theory
• Theoretical and Applied Cryptography
• Consensus Protocols
• Networking & Peer-to-Peer Systems
• Client Engineering
• Security
• Formal Verification
• Humanities

Benefits of Participation

This grant round offers up to $1 million in total funding, to be allocated among selected projects.

Projects are anticipated to run for a duration of 6 to 12 months, with some flexibility based on project proposals.

Criteria for Participation

• Projects must generate formal academic research.
• Research output must be accessible through open-access platforms with free and permissive licensing.
• Applicants may include individual researchers with academic backgrounds, research centres, universities, think-tanks, educators, and other stakeholders with a vested interest in Ethereum-related research.
• Undergraduate researchers must have a postdoctoral advisor.

What is Not Eligible

• Projects contravening legal regulations in their respective jurisdictions.
• Financial products and services, including trading platforms, investment products, stablecoins, lending or betting platforms, etc.
• Art or social impact projects fall outside the scope of this round.
• Projects seeking retroactive funding.
• Projects planning a token launch or public funding round.

How to Apply:

Interested parties can submit their applications via the provided link. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, March 5, 2024.