Round 002 Cohort

Meet the newest Shift Grantees

Genesis Cohort: Meet the First Shift Grantees

We’re excited to share the SHIFT Grants Round 002 winners below, each a tangible example of d/acc thinking turned into action:

Social Technology & Governance
Project: Federated learning for decentralized AI

Funding: $40,000

Grantees: Abraham Nash, Umer Majeed, Tudor Cebere

DIN is building a fully decentralized protocol that lets people train AI models across their own devices without sharing raw data. Contributors earn stablecoin rewards for participating, while governance is handled by a DAO to ensure transparency and fairness. This privacy-preserving infrastructure aims to enable a more democratic, resilient, and energy-efficient AI ecosystem.
Pitch Presentation
Pitch Presentation
Project: Rapid, on-demand vaccine manufacturing

Funding: $39,000

Grantees: Dr. Timothy Vu, CEO & Mary Kelly, CSO

Multispec Bio is developing a portable platform that can produce nanoparticle vaccines in just four hours using cell-free protein synthesis. This technology enables vaccines to be made locally—without cold-chain logistics—making rapid response possible during outbreaks and reducing costs to under $1 per dose. If successful, the system would decentralize vaccine production and strengthen global pandemic preparedness.
Biosecurity & Pandemic Defense
Pitch Presentation
Neurotechnology & Augmented Cognition
Project: Vasocomputation: mapping the vascular basis of consciousness

Funding: $39,000

Grantees: Mike Johnson, Nick Ford & Ryan Pripstein

Symmetry Institute is pioneering research into “vasocomputation,” the hypothesis that vascular dynamics act as part of the brain’s computational system, influencing memory, trauma, and cognition. Using non-invasive ultrasound mapping, the team will gather the first experimental data on how vascular states shape mental states—potentially opening a new field linking physiology, computation, and consciousness science.
Pitch Presentation
Biosecurity & Pandemic Defense
Project: Open-source RF antiviral wearables

Funding: $20,000

Grantees: Gavin Taylor, CTO & Subash Das, Biopharma consultant

Resonant Health is creating wearable and portable devices that use safe, low-power radio-frequency signals to inactivate respiratory viruses. The team will run animal trials to validate effectiveness and release the reference design under an open-source license. If successful, this could provide affordable, continuous personal protection during seasonal outbreaks and future pandemics.
Pitch Presentation
Project: Decentralized pathogen detection in Liberia

Funding: $14,500

Grantees: Saeed Ahmad

Led by researcher Saeed Ahmad, this project strengthens Liberia’s biosecurity through a distributed detection and reporting system for infectious disease. By linking community health workers and clinics via offline-first, cryptographically secure data pipelines, the project enables faster, verifiable outbreak alerts and improves the country’s resilience to epidemics.
Biosecurity & Pandemic Defense