Solana Foundation launches Solana Scholars program for PhD internships

The Solana Foundation wants PhD students to spend less time theorizing about blockchains and more time working on one. The Zug, Switzerland-based non-profit has launched Solana Scholars, a program offering funded internships to doctoral students who research blockchain topics side by side with engineers. What Solana Scholars actually offers The core idea is simple. PhD students get paid internships, and in exchange they tackle blockchain research problems while working directly with engineers. The program was announced on September 30, 2026. It sits within the Foundation’s broader stated mission of fostering decentralization, strengthening ecosystem security, and driving adoption of the Solana blockchain. Scalability, security, and censorship resistance are the likely beneficiaries, according to the research summary on the program. A pattern of academic outreach Solana Scholars is not the Foundation’s first attempt to court universities. The Breakpoint Global Fellows scholarship dates back to 2021. The University Ambassador Program followed a similar logic, with applications typically opening in August. The Foundation has also been busy on the developer side in 2026. It introduced ...