Engage in building new knowledge.

The Interledger Foundation invites original research contributions that will help deepen the state of knowledge on digital financial inclusion and payment interoperability. We are a global non-profit organization with a vision to enable open, affordable, secure, and interoperable financial services for all. As the steward of the Interledger Protocol and Open Payments Standard, we support initiatives that are interested in building within the Interledger ecosystem. The Foundation is equally committed to fostering meaningful and cross-disciplinary research and policy engagement on these issues. 

Program Overview.

Despite substantial advancements in financial access, securing inclusive, affordable, and responsible financial services for all remains a pressing global challenge. We believe that the global research community can play a vital role in unpacking the societal, policy, and technological dimensions of this challenge and guide informed technological and policy solutions.

With that in mind, the Interledger Foundation invites abstracts for research papers that engage with tackling barriers to financial access, fostering open and interoperable financial systems, and supporting responsible use of technology in the financial sector. The authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit full-length papers.  

Authors of final accepted papers will be entitled to receive an honorarium of 5000 USD. They will also be expected to present their work and engage in peer review at the Interledger Summit in Mexico City from 5-6 Nov 2025 (the Foundation will support travel and accommodation for one author per paper).

Themes and suggested topics.

The call for abstracts is open till May 15, 2025. Submitted abstracts should fall under one of the following themes and may include (but need not be limited to) the topics suggested below.
 

Understanding financial inclusion

• Defining and measuring financial inclusion
• Country-level or sub-regional evidence from financial inclusion initiatives 
• Case studies of financial inclusion or exclusion at the margins
• Inclusion across the spectrum of financial products and services
• Unpacking financial rights as human rights

Key actors and incentives

• Traditional financial institutions and new incentives to innovate
• Mobile operators and non-financial firms in the financial landscape
• Community-led initiatives, agents, and intermediaries as enablers of inclusion
• Role of global and regional standard-setting bodies
• The cost of micro-transactions in modern payment networks

Regulatory and policy dimensions 

• Responding to policy challenges in the path of financial innovation
• Digital identity verification, data protection, and cross-border compliance
• Building consumer trust through financial protection frameworks
• Impact of regulatory approaches on market competition and service pricing
• Compliance models for AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorist Financing) in open payments systems

Technology and interoperability

• Interoperable standards to facilitate cross-border financial transactions
• Promise and risk of AI and other disruptive technologies within financial systems
• Application of routing algorithms and graph theory for scalability and efficiency
• New strategies for forex markets in the age of cryptocurrency and stablecoins
• Settlement strategies for next-generation cross-border payment networks

Eligibility for authors

• The call is open to academic contributors and researchers from all parts of the world and across all disciplines. PhD candidates, early-career researchers, and independent researchers are also welcome to apply.  
• We welcome collaborative research projects that will bring together interdisciplinary insights from diverse academic and professional fields.  
• Participation from scholars belonging to underrepresented groups and from countries in the Global South is strongly encouraged. 
• Research that engages with the Open Payments Standard and/or the Interledger Protocol on any of the four themes would be of particular interest.
• A submission can have a maximum of four co-authors. In the case of co-authored papers, the honorarium of USD 5000 will be shared equally among the co-authors.

Abstract requirements

• The abstract should be between 800 and 1000 words and contain the following elements: title, research questions, brief background and context, methodology, proposed arguments, and relevance. 4 -7 keywords should accompany it.
• The abstract needs to be accompanied by a list of relevant bibliographical references (no more than 1 page) and a brief CV of the author(s) (not more than three pages each).
• Abstracts need to be composed in English and submitted electronically through this online submission portal.  
• Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit full-length papers of 5000 to 7000 words.
• Final papers may be published in a special volume, online report, or in such other form as the Interledger Foundation determines.
   

Key dates 

• Final date for abstract submission: May 15, 2025
• Notification to authors of selected abstracts: June 30, 2025
• Submission of the first draft of the paper: Sept 15, 2025
• Peer review and feedback: Oct 15, 2025
• Interledger summit: November 5 -6, 2025 
• Final submission of papers: Nov 15, 2025

  In case of any queries, please review the program guide or feel free to reach out to the program team programteam@interledger.org

Interledger-NextGen Higher Education, 2025 Call for LoI

Interledger Foundation (ILF) is welcoming Letters of Intent (LOIs) from educational institutions with a vested interest in nurturing a talent pipeline of builders, innovators and advocates for inclusive digital financial systems. 

The Interledger-NextGen Higher Education program aims to adequately prepare tomorrow’s open-source, open-payment, and digital financial inclusion workforce. To do this, the Interledger Foundation is looking for educators in higher education institutions to build campus and classroom programs, ranging from research, curriculum development, training, community-building, and technological innovation, amongst other initiatives, that will establish learning, investigative and practical exposure for its students to open-payment technologies with the potential to disrupt the economic landscape. 

About the LOI Request 

Applicants will be asked to upload a 2-page PDF outlining the 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. More specifically, insights on the proposed program, including a high-level description of the activities to be undertaken, e.g., course offering, curriculum reboot/development, etc. 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 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.

Eligibility

Educational institutions to include public and private two to four-year institutions, institutional systems or consortia of institutions, and university-affiliated research centers or laboratories. Applying universities must align the proposed initiative with their undergraduate or graduate departments of computer science, information technology, business, sustainable development, or related fields.

We are accepting only one letter of intent per institution. 

Project Timeline & Grant Amount

Grant funding of up to USD 50,000 is available for a 12-month timeline to cover both work on the proposed project and any costs associated with event participation, training, or software development.

Resources

Interested applicants can download the Application Guidelines which provides a comprehensive overview of the grant requirement, process, guidelines and list of resources about Interledger Foundation, and its related technologies. 

You may also preview the work done by the following previously funded universities - Bowie State University (USA) and the University of Cape Town (South Africa).

Additional Key Information

We've decided to keep the LOI process open and accept submissions on a rolling basis. On that basis, the Interledger Foundation will be accepting letters of intent from interested universities up to Friday, October 3, 2025 at 11:59 pm (EDT). 

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

For specific grant related questions, please contact the program team at programteam@interledger.org. Please include "Interledger-NextGen Higher Education Grant LOI:  Inquiry" in the subject line.