rewrite this title Introducing the EF Academic Secretariat 2026 PhD Fellowship | Ethereum Foundation Blog

The EF’s Academic Secretariat team is proud to announce the launch of the inaugural PhD Fellowship Program, a pioneering initiative aimed at empowering and expanding the frontiers of Ethereum-related academic research, by supporting Ethereum-related academic work led by PhD students.

Round Scope

The scope of this round includes work that is broadly relevant to students interested in pursuing research that are at the intersection of Institutional Design, Corporate Governance, Political Economic, Decentralized AI, and Ethereum. We are seeking proposals that align with the RFP topics listed on our webpage.

We encourage researchers to use these RFPs as a starting point, and to think creatively about how their work can generate meaningful insights and contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Application Essentials

The program will award 7-8 Fellowships, each with a $24,000 USD stipend over one year.Proposals are due 23:59 AoE April 1st, 2026.All applicants must be actively enrolled into a PhD Program from a university or academic institute.Projects must produce formal academic research published in venues such as conferences or journals.Research output must be open-access with a free and permissive license.All applications must have a written proposal in PDF format:Proposals must be in English.Proposals adhere to this template.Proposals must include an applicant profile.Proposals must include a public repository or link to published work.Applications are selected for funding on a case-by-case basis. You may submit more than one application as long as each proposal is unique and meets the requirements of the RFP item that they’re linked to.Decisions will be emailed 6 weeks after the application deadline.For additional support or inquiries about the submission process, please reach out to academic-grants@ethereum.org. For further information, visit our website.