Interledger Foundation Launching NextGen Higher Education Grant to Shape the Future Digital Financial Inclusion Leaders

Interledger Foundation seeks to nurture a talent pipeline of builders and advocates for inclusive digital financial systems by collaborating with educational institutions to inspire future leaders. We aim to adequately prepare tomorrow’s open-source, open-payment, and digital financial inclusion workforce. To do this, we are looking for educators in higher education institutions to build campus and classroom programs that expose students to emerging open payment technologies with the potential to disrupt the economic landscape.

Through such partnerships, Interledger will fund programs that will produce diverse pathways for undergraduate and graduate students, creating a future where people aren’t just fixing legacy systems' mistakes but building fairer, inclusive, and interoperable payment networks.

Visit our Education page to learn more about the Next-Gen Higher Education Grant and the work done by pilot initiatives with Bowie State University and the University of Cape Town.

Through the Next-Gen Higher Education Grant, Interledger seeks to support projects with plans to:

• Enable faculty to implement effective forward-thinking initiatives to enable digital financial literacy and inclusion.
• Increase student engagement, interaction, and learning about open-payment technologies, open-source, and digital financial inclusion with a significant focus on the Interledger Protocol and related technologies.
• Showcase career pathways in open payments, open-source, sustainable development, and the multi-disciplinary fintech space.

Interested universities must align the proposed initiative with their undergraduate or graduate departments of computer science, information technology, business, sustainable development, or related fields. The proposed project/initiative should be built on diversity, equity, and inclusion principles and support the Interledger Foundation's thrust to foster an empowering ecosystem for digital financial inclusion.

The Interledger-NextGen Higher Education Grant will accept project considerations for a project length of up to 12 months and for funding up to USD 50,000 to cover work on the proposed project and any costs associated with event participation, training, or software development.

Interested universities must submit an electronic copy of their Letter of Intent (LOI) via Submittable by July 11, 2024, at 11:59 pm (EDT).

Interested universities can submit their letter of intent via Submittable starting Thursday, May 30, 2024, at 12:00 am (EDT).

Universities will be asked to upload a 2-page PDF outlining the overall proposed project’s objectives, its intended impact, and the estimated budget/grant amount being sought with an indication of what the majority of the budget will be spent on. A summary overview of the proposed program, including a high-level description of the activities to be undertaken, e.g., course offering, curriculum reboot/development, etc. The project should indicate some level of investigation, integration, student exposure to the Interledger Protocol, and engagement with the ILF ecosystem. The proposed initiative should focus on developing skills in open payment technologies, social impact, entrepreneurship, and international development research. Successful projects must have a theory of impact.

We invite you to connect with us via our various communication channels, Community Forum, and Interledger Slack for more details on this grant opportunity.