Shift Grants are designed to support scientific and technological breakthrough projects that align with d/acc philosophy: decentralized, democratic, differential, defensive acceleration.
Shift grants aim to bridge funding gaps for d/acc. The current paradigm prioritizes short-term returns, leaving defensive and decentralized innovations underfunded. We want to address this.
We aim to direct philanthropic funding through small and development grants in six domains.
Mission
What are Shift Grants
Shift Grants are designed to support scientific and technological breakthrough
projects that align with d/acc philosophy: decentralized, democratic, differential, defensive acceleration.
Shift grants aim to bridge funding gaps for d/acc.
The current paradigm prioritizes short-term returns, leaving defensive and decentralized innovations underfunded. We want to address this.
We aim to direct philanthropic funding through small and development grants in six domains: Biosecurity, Cyber Defense, Info Resilience, Infrastructure, NeuroTech, Social Tech/Governance.
Shift supports projects within six tracks
Projects may range from speculative to applied.
Genesis Cohort: Meet the First Shift Grantees
Nine teams turning the d/acc ethos—decentralised, democratic, differential, defensive acceleration—into code, hardware, and systems.
9 breakthrough projects that make up our Genesis Cohort:
Grant Type: Development Grant
Project: SL5 Task Force 2025
A cross-disciplinary task force (AI-lab security, hardware, national-security) that will publish a step-by-step roadmap—and early prototypes—needed for “SL5” model-weight security. Today’s best AI labs top out at “Security Level 3.” That stops casual hackers, but not a well-resourced nation state. The SL5 Task Force convenes data-centre operators, cyber-officers, and ML researchers to draft the first action-plan for truly top-shelf AI security—then prototypes hardware and software fixes labs can adopt right away.
Grant Type: Development Grant
Project: dCypher
End-to-end encryption is great—until you need to share a file. dCypher ships an open-source re-encryption proxy that lets you hand temporary, revocable access to any piece of data while it stays encrypted on disk. Built on lattice-based (post-quantum) crypto and designed for a one-command cloud deploy. Think “Dropbox-style sharing,” but encrypted, with the possibility to grant or revoke access instantly.
Grant Type: Micro Grant
Project: Precog Prediction Markets
An onchain, open-source, token-agnostic prediction market for surfacing trustworthy, future-focused insights. Goal is to enable communities (e.g. Zu Nodes) to coordinate around real signals rather than noise. Accurate forecasters earn reputation and rewards; AI agents can read the ledger to update their own models.
Grant Type: Development Grant
Project: Decentralized ROS 2 Middleware
Replacing centralized communication in robotics with a peer-to-peer, libp2p-based middleware for ROS 2. Most robots speak ROS2, but its networking assumes every bot lives on the same trusted LAN. This project swaps in libp2p’s peer-to-peer mesh, letting robots from different vendors coordinate in warehouses, farms, or disaster zones without a shared cloud account. Enables secure, cross-fleet communication among autonomous systems—goal is resilient, cross-vendor robotic infrastructure.
Grant Type: Development Grant
Project: Living Neural AI Systems
Developing a biocomputation platform using 3D-bioprinted neural tissues to perform programmable computation. Merging living neurons with silicon for next-generation brain-machine interfaces and bioartificial intelligence. Intactis grows thumbnail-sized neural tissues, trains them, and connects them to silicon control circuits—a first step toward low-energy bio-computers.
Grant Type: Micro Grant
Project: Inception Loop for Brain Grafts
Designs personalized neural tissue using multimodal AI and digital twin simulations—enabling low-cost, high-fidelity neural grafts for cognitive repair and progressive brain replacement. Eightsix feeds MRI scans into a multimodal LLM, simulates the print-and-grow cycle entirely in software, then outputs a ready-to-print scaffold.
Funding Structure
Grant Types
Shift grants offers two tiers of funding:
Micro Grants ($5,000–$15,000)
For exploratory ideas, early-stage experiments, and prototype development.
Applicants should clearly articulate their concept, d/acc alignment, and preliminary plan. Deliverables can be simple but must be concrete.
Development Grants ($20,000–$40,000)
For teams with the capacity to execute and deliver measurable milestones.
Applicants must provide a roadmap, define technical and execution risks, and commit to iterative reporting and engagement.
Follow-on funding may be considered for outstanding projects.
Grant Types
Shift grants offers two tiers of funding:
Micro Grants ($5,000–$15,000)
For exploratory ideas, early-stage experiments, and prototype development.
Applicants should clearly articulate their concept, d/acc alignment, and preliminary plan. Deliverables can be simple but must be concrete.
Development Grants ($20,000–$40,000)
For teams with the capacity to execute and deliver measurable milestones.
Applicants must provide a roadmap, define technical and execution risks, and commit to iterative reporting and engagement.
Follow-on funding may be considered for outstanding projects.
Selection Criteria
Alignment with d/acc Principles
Proposals must clearly engage with at least three of the four “d”s.
If one d is absent, applicants must explain why this is consistent with the spirit of d/acc.
If a proposal conflicts with a pillar (e.g., private biosecurity R&D), justification must be compelling.
Openness and Ethics
Open-source dissemination is the default.
Security-sensitive work must include mitigation strategies and a justification for any elements of the project that are not open-sourced.
Ethical implications should be considered explicitly.
Transformative Potential
Proposals should go beyond incremental improvements.
Strong preference for ideas that could shift paradigms or form the basis of new fields.
Feasibility and Execution
Clear plans and realistic milestones are required.
Development proposals must show technical depth and real-world applicability.
Confidence in the Team
Track record is less important than clarity of vision and fit.
When to apply?
Shift Grants are organized into funding rounds.
Funding Round 002
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Call opens: 19th of August 2025
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Application deadline: September 12, 2025
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Shortlisting: September 12, 2025
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Final review: September 18-25, 2025
Grant award announcements during Dev Connect 2025
The Shift decision making process may evolve over time.
For the 002 round of funding, the process is:
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The totality of the applications are triaged and shortlisted by the Shift core team and advisors
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Final fund distribution is decided by the advisory board.
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Evaluation methods may differ in future rounds based on community feedback and performance.
Voting mechanism
Grant Administration
Shift grants aim to bridge funding gaps for d/acc.
The current paradigm prioritizes short-term returns, leaving defensive and decentralized innovations underfunded. We want to address this. Our long-term vision is a sustainable, revolving funding model. When grantees develop revenue, they're invited to return value back into the fund. This system enable the next wave of d/acc-aligned innovation and creates a self-sustaining engine for collective progress.
Ressources
Food for thought and latest news
