PhD Fellowship Program
The Ethereum Foundation is launching a fellowship-style grant program to support Ethereum-related academic work led by current PhD students. Selected Fellows will receive $24,000 USD over one year, intended as a supplement to their existing stipend, with 7-8 Fellowships awarded in total. Proposals are due 23:59 AoE April 1st, 2026.
PhD Fellowship Program
The Ethereum Foundation is launching a fellowship-style grant program to support Ethereum-related academic work led by current PhD students. Selected Fellows will receive $24,000 USD over one year, intended as a supplement to their existing stipend, with 7-8 Fellowships awarded in total. Proposals are due 23:59 AoE April 1st, 2026.
AI-Powered Protocol Security: Research, Auditing, and Vulnerability Detection
This RFP covers two distinct research directions: (1) Protocol Specification Research (2) Smart Contract Security Auditing Applicants are encouraged to propose refinements, alternative approaches, or detailed technical plans. Submissions may focus on either one or both of these directions, and will be evaluated based on the depth and technical rigor of the proposed scope. This RFP seeks the R&D of AI-powered tools and agent systems that automate and assist both smart contract security auditing and cryptographic protocol security research. The work should combine AI/ML techniques to detect vulnerabilities, gas inefficiencies, and protocol-level flaws. Proposals should deliver agents capable of moving beyond code analysis into the realm of protocol synthesis, specification auditing, and research optimization, providing frameworks for the architectural design and continuous monitoring of Ethereum-based systems.
Tags
- Research
- PhDFP
- dAI
Ecosystem Need
Producing secure protocol specs or auditing smart contract code is labor-intensive, expensive, and prone to human error: - Many failures stem from flawed protocol logic or research assumptions before code is ever written. - Researching and auditing complex Ethereum systems (Rollups, Privacy Protocols) is slow and highly prone to human error. - Manual audits are slow and costly, creating bottlenecks in development and deployment - Increasing contract complexity makes comprehensive auditing difficult, leading to missed vulnerabilities - Many projects cannot afford professional audits, increasing ecosystem risk - Existing automated tools, have high false positive rates and miss complex vulnerabilities - New vulnerability patterns emerge as the ecosystem evolves, requiring continuous tooling updates
Hard Requirements
Proposals must adhere to this template: https://notes.ethereum.org/@s_VsCoN-RHCQdMf6bFLJ8g/H1Tsh8sSWx Proposals Requirements: 1. Implement capability to generate secure protocols from scratch based on high-level security goals and architectural constraints. 2. Ability to audit protocol specs for security flaws and other protocol-specific vulnerabilities, such as censorship risks and economic exploits. 3. Ability to take existing specs or research proposals as input and propose specific research-level improvements. 4. Design and implement an AI-powered auditing system (single agent or multi-agent) that analyzes smart contract code 5. Deliver working tools that can be integrated with Ethereum developer frameworks (e.g., Hardhat, Foundry) 6. Provide vulnerability detection covering common categories (reentrancy, access control, arithmetic errors, gas issues, etc.) 7. Include evaluation on benchmark datasets or real contracts, reporting detection rates, false positive/negative rates, and performance metrics
Soft Requirements
- Combine multiple analysis techniques in an integrated framework - Generate executable proof-of-concept exploits or test cases demonstrating vulnerabilities - Provide mechanisms for tool improvement through feedback and learning from audit results - Consider gas optimization and efficiency analysis in addition to security vulnerabilities
Resources
Timeline
Opens: Feb 2, 2026
Closes: Apr 1, 2026
Estimated Project Duration: 1 Year
