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 9-10 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 9-10 Fellowships awarded in total. Proposals are due 23:59 AoE April 1st, 2026.
Agent Negotiation and Automated Mechanism Design Or Smart Contract Generation
Note: This RFP is meant as a high-level research direction. Applicants are encouraged to propose refinements, alternative approaches, or more detailed technical plans, which will be evaluated as part of the submission. This project focuses on the protocols and generative logic required for AI agents to independently negotiate terms and instantiate them as executable smart contracts. The goal is to move beyond simple "buy/sell" transactions toward complex, multi-party handshakes. This involves Automated Mechanism Design (AMD), where agents design custom incentive structures, auctions, or escrow conditions, and the seamless translation of these negotiated agreements into on-chain deployments that govern the deal without human intervention.
Tags
- Research
- PhDFP
- dAI
Ecosystem Need
We are addressing the "Rigidity of Interaction" in current autonomous systems: - Static Economic Rules: Most agent environments use hard-coded rules. We need systems where agents can "draft" a new contract to suit a specific, one-off partnership or deal. - The Translation Gap: There is currently no reliable pipeline to take a natural-language negotiation ("I'll pay you X if Y happens by Tuesday") and turn it into a binding, functional smart contract. - Incentive Misalignment: Without automated mechanism design, agents may enter into "bad deals" that are easily exploited by adversarial actors or sub-optimal for the intended outcome. - Discovery and coordination: Agents currently lack a standardized way to signal their negotiation parameters or discover compatible counterparties for complex deals.
Hard Requirements
Proposals must adhere to this template: https://notes.ethereum.org/@s_VsCoN-RHCQdMf6bFLJ8g/H1Tsh8sSWx Proposal Requirements: 1. Contract Synthesis Engine: A system capable of generating the logic of a smart contract based on the final parameters of an agent-to-agent negotiation.
Soft Requirements
- Negotiation Protocol: A structured framework (e.g., a bidding or bargaining protocol) that allows agents to reach a consensus on terms before the contract is generated. - Domain-Specific Templates: Development of modular "contract primitives" (escrows, penalties, multi-sigs) that agents can remix during a negotiation. - Dynamic Re-negotiation: Mechanisms that allow agents to propose amendments to an existing contract based on changing environmental data or partial performance. - Simulation and backtesting: A sandbox to verify that the negotiated "deal" will actually result in the desired economic outcome before it is committed to the blockchain.
Resources
Timeline
Opens: Feb 10, 2026
Closes: Apr 1, 2026
Estimated Project Duration: 1 Year
