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. 

Following two pilot undertakings with Bowie State University (USA) and the University of Cape Town (South Africa), the Interledger Foundation will launch this program as an open call accessible to all universities globally. This 2024 grant cycle aims to accomplish the following goals:

• 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. 
• Enable faculty to implement effective forward-thinking initiatives to enable digital financial literacy and inclusion. 
• Showcase career pathways in open payments, open-source, sustainable development, and the multi-disciplinary fintech space.

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 both work on the proposed project and any costs associated with event participation, training, or software development.

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've decided to keep the LOI process open and accept submissions on a rolling basis. Interledger Foundation will be accepting letters of intent from interested universities up to Tuesday, December 31, 2024, at 11:59 pm (EDT). 

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.

Interested applicants can download a copy of the Application Guide for the Interledger-NextGen Higher Education letter of intent phase to access information on the grant process, requirements, resource list, and other details essential to applying for this opportunity.

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