
The EF Academic Secretariat team is proud to announce the launch of the first Doctoral Fellowships Program, a pioneering initiative aimed at strengthening and pushing the boundaries of Ethereum-related academic research, by supporting Ethereum-related academic work carried out by doctoral students.
Round scope
The scope of this cycle includes work broadly relevant to students interested in pursuing research at the intersection of institutional design, corporate governance, political economy, decentralized AI, and Ethereum. We are looking for proposals that match the RFP topics listed on our webpage.
We encourage researchers to use these RFPs as a starting point and think creatively about how their work can generate meaningful insights and contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Application Essentials
- The program will award 7-8 scholarships, each with a stipend of $24,000 over one year.
- Proposals must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. AoE on April 1, 2026.
- All applicants must be actively enrolled in a doctoral program at a university or academic institute.
- Projects must produce formal academic research published in venues such as conferences or journals.
- Research results must be open access with a free and permissive license.
- All applications must be accompanied by a written proposal in PDF format:
- Proposals must be in English.
- The proposals follow this model.
- Proposals must include a candidate profile.
- Proposals must include a public repository or link to published work.
- Funding requests are selected on a case-by-case basis. You may submit more than one application provided that each proposal is unique and meets the requirements of the RFP element to which it is linked.
- Decisions will be emailed 6 weeks after the application deadline.
- For additional assistance or inquiries about the submission process, please contact academic-grants@ethereum.org. For more information, visit our website.


