We have been considering how to better provide clarity and direction for grantees, while also assuring better alignment with the Foundation and Grants Committee’s goals.
Building on previous communications regarding the governance practices of the Grants Program,the Grants Program Review (2025)–and as an additional step towards the full Grants Program Strategy (including KPIs)–we are announcing new funding directives effective April 10, 2026.
- New shift to specific themes for grant proposals
- Details of what the Committee does and does not want to fund
- Clarified working definition of what is considered to be a high quality grant
Here are further details:
1. Proposals addressing specific themes only
Grant proposals will now be required to focus on either one of the following themes starting in 2026 Q2:
- Building with SDKs
- Building on indexd
All builders in the Sia ecosystem can access these product offerings through the new Dev Portal.
This shift will allow for more tailored project ideas aligned with the latest Foundation technical product offerings and focused on developing projects that can provide valuable use cases and tooling for the ecosystem.
2. What the Committee does and does not want to fund
What the Committee wants to fund / Project ideas:
- sharing/viewing large single files (videos, data sets, high-res photos) (some public examples: huggingface large files via xet-core, linux package and os mirrors, android apks and software distribution in general)
- sharing files via platforms without vendor lock-in
- small useful replacements for everyday (ex. Replacing Google Photos/Instagram) utilizing SDKs
- infrastructure - ex. Ability to QA existing/old integrations
- SDK use case: Small files with constant changes (solving repacking and syncing issues) (ex. A Google Doc style app with constant text edit capability)
- decentralized exchanges on Sia
What the Committee does not want to fund:
- password managers
- hardware production
- informational dashboards
- documentation for Foundation-developed software
- marketing, educational, or promotional materials
- basic hardware like a computer
- physical spaces or workspaces
- where the primary development will be subcontracted
- anything requiring integration with non-Sia blockchains
- integrations into minimally-used platforms or apps*
- projects including Sia as an after-thought
- overly ambitious or unfocused projects
- proposals from the locations on this list
*The aim is to encourage well-known, industry standard tool integrations instead. If there is any uncertainty about the integration you’re considering, feel free to ask at [email protected].
3. New working definition of a high-quality grant
High-quality grants are projects that are:
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Applications natively built on Sia with the SDKs
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Primarily developer-facing applications, or secondarily are valuable consumer-facing tool use cases as detailed above
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Aligned with Foundation project expectations as expressed in the proposal criteria + the technical expectations outlined in the Grants Development Guide
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Align with the Foundation’s registered 501(c) (3) non-profit mission of supporting the Sia cloud storage network and educating the public about the urgency of data privacy and ownership (summarized as a mission of promoting ‘user-owned data’)
- address a recognized and unique need in the developer (or user) community through the project
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Have explicit built-in plans beyond the duration of the the grant:
- The project is part of a long-term plan for engagement with the Sia ecosystem, or Sia is an instrumental part of the project’s future; demonstrating how the grant is key to these plans.
- This is indicated by:
- A high-level to robust technical roadmap including stages post-grant; and/or
- Indicated communication channel development (ex. BlueSky, Discord, etc.) for community feedback and general project marketing ambitions; and/or
- Project sustainability plans i.e. potential sources of future funding or income.
- If the grant idea is not from the list in Item #2 above (What the Committee does and does not want to fund), the immediate impact to the developer community needs justification:
- Are there instances that can be shared that point to this use case being needed/sought after? How common is this use case in the decentralized storage space?
- Why is this project a better fit than other approaches (existing or not) as a solution?
The above definition is meant to provide further detail around Foundation and Committee grant project expectations, and is to be utilized in collaboration with the established evaluation rubric:
- Mission Alignment: Does the proposal address a recognized need in the developer or user community? Is the need consistent with The Sia Foundation’s mission of “user-owned data”?
- Proposal Organization: Are the goals and objectives clearly written? Can the desired outcomes be easily tracked? Has a high-level architecture overview been included?
- Potential Impact: Will the successful execution of this project make a meaningful impact on the decentralized storage sector, data privacy community in general, and the Sia community in particular?
- Technical Feasibility: Is the project feasible and the risk reasonable for the timeline provided?
- Team Capabilities: Is it clear that the applying individual or organization has the technical capabilities to deliver on their proposal?
- Budget Justification: How well does the applicant justify the budget? Is the budget aligned with the technical difficulty and potential impact of the project?
We hope the above will provide more helpful direction to grantees, ideally resulting in a lower rejection rate for proposals when they get to the Committee for review.
Please note the next Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, meaning the proposal submission deadline is Wednesday, April 22, 2026 by 5pm ET.
If there are any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to list them below, or feel free to email: [email protected]