Overview of Stellar Grants
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) provides Stellar grants to builders that contribute to the network’s success. Several grant programs are currently open:
Research and Development Grants
To encourage innovation, SDF offers R&D grants that support the creation of minimum viable products and proofs of concept aimed at improving liquidity, increasing throughput, or otherwise extending the capabilities of the network to meet ecosystem needs. R&D grants go to qualified teams with proven capability to define benchmarks, conduct experiments, deliver results, and explain them to the world at large.
Anyone can submit a proposal by following the steps outlined on the application page. Periodically, the SDF R&D grants committee will evaluate applications, and follow up with those that meet current standards and fulfill current ecosystem needs. When evaluating a proposal, the grants committee will ask:
- Does the experiment have real potential to improve liquidity, increase network throughput, or add key functionality to the Stellar network?
- Is it well scoped?
- Will it deliver measurable results?
- Does the team behind the proposal have a proven track record of reliability?
Infrastructure Grants
SDF’s Infrastructure Grant program supports projects that provide crucial network utility. There is no way to apply for this program. Instead, SDF allows projects to emerge and prove their value organically. The SDF ecosystem team reviews the Stellar ecosystem, asking of each major project:
- Is this project an application or service that helps the Stellar network grow?
- Has the project proven its value?
- Is the team ambitious and dedicated to the long-term success of the network?
If the answer to these questions is yes, the project is considered for a grant, and SDF reaches out for more information.
Grants are paid out every quarter and before each distribution, SDF reviews the roadmaps to ensure recipients keep driving the ecosystem forward.
Marketing Grants Program
As part of its commitment to bringing new individual users and businesses to the Stellar ecosystem, SDF offers marketing grants of up to $100,000 to fuel the growth and user acquisition efforts of projects built on the Stellar network. The funds are designed to support a wide array of initiatives, including digital and offline marketing, in-app incentives, PR, and communications.
Marketing grants go to both new and existing projects with clear use cases and concrete timelines and are reserved for qualified teams with proven capability to define budgets, set benchmarks, execute on marketing campaigns, and deliver results. To apply for a Stellar Development Foundation Marketing Grant, please visit the application page. Funding for a marketing grant is up to $100k.
Academic Research Grants
SDF is soliciting proposals for scientific, technological, economic, and legal research advancing the foundation’s goals of financial inclusion, fast and inexpensive cross-border payments, efficient decentralized markets, and other beneficial applications of blockchain technology.
There is a limit of maximum 2 submissions per calendar year. To get a list of possible topics of interest, as well as the specific outline that proposals should use, visit the SDF’s Academic Research Grants landing page.
Awards will be provided as unrestricted gifts intended for an individual with PI status at an academic institution. The funds are intended to support the cost of one graduate student or one post-doc for 12 months, plus reasonable expenses such as conference travel.
