The EF's Ecosystem Funding Initiative team is proud to announce the launch of the 2025 Academic Grants Round, a pioneering initiative aimed at empowering and expanding the frontiers of Ethereum-related academic research. With a dedicated fund of $2 million, we are eager to build upon the success of the previous rounds by supporting innovative research in diverse fields critical to the growth and strengthening of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Round Scope

The scope of this round includes, but is not limited to, projects in Economics & Game Theory, Applied and Theoretical Cryptography, Consensus Algorithms, Protocol Design, Networking & P2P Technologies, Client Engineering, Security, Formal Verification, and Humanities. We welcome bold ideas and novel approaches that can meaningfully contribute to the Ethereum community. You are welcome to refer to our wishlist for ideas, but don’t let that limit your creativity!

Who Can Apply?

The call is open to academic researchers, educators, and thinkers from institutions, universities, research centers, and think tanks with insights or propositions that resonate with Ethereum’s vision. We encourage submissions from individuals or teams eager to explore the possibilities within the Ethereum protocol.

Application Essentials

• Proposal Deadline: Proposals must be submitted by 23:59 AoE on March 16th, 2025. Make sure to submit your applications here.
• Types of Projects: Projects must produce formal academic research, and research output must be open-access with a free and permissive license.
• Target Audience: Applications are open to individual researchers with academic backgrounds, research centers, universities, think tanks, educators and other stakeholders interested in Ethereum research.
• Submission Format: Proposals should be in PDF format, written in English, and include a detailed project description, budget, timeline, applicant profile, and a link to any relevant public work or repository. Here is a template for a proposal
• Funding Decisions: Applicants will be informed of funding decisions within six weeks post-deadline.

Need Help?

For additional support or inquiries about the submission process, please reach out to academic-grants@ethereum.org. For further information, visit our website.