Polymarket Science Fellowship

About Polymarket Institute

Polymarket Institute is the independent research arm of Polymarket, a leading prediction market platform that allows participants to trade outcome-linked tokens on real-world events. The Institute was established to advance the scientific understanding of prediction markets as information institutions, supporting rigorous academic research that explores how these markets aggregate information, generate probabilistic forecasts, and influence decision-making across sectors. Based in New York, the Institute collaborates with researchers from universities and research organizations worldwide to push the boundaries of what is known about information markets and their societal impact.

The Polymarket Science Fellowship is a twelve-month program that provides twelve selected researchers each year with a $10,000 grant to pursue independent, frontier research on prediction markets. The fellowship is designed for early-career Ph.D. researchers who wish to investigate open questions about how prediction markets function, how they can be improved, and what role they play in the broader information ecosystem. Fellows are expected to work within one of the Institute's five research verticals and to produce publishable research outcomes by the end of their fellowship term.

Each fellow selects a research vertical aligned with the Institute's charter. The five verticals are Market Structure, which examines the design and mechanics of prediction market platforms; Market Integrity, which investigates issues of manipulation, accuracy, and trust in market outcomes; AI, which explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and prediction market technology; Policy and Economics, which studies the regulatory and economic implications of prediction markets; and Crypto and Decentralization, which focuses on blockchain-based market designs and decentralized governance mechanisms. Fellows have full autonomy to choose their specific research questions within these verticals, provided the work contributes to the scientific understanding of prediction markets.

A defining feature of the fellowship is the complete editorial independence granted to each fellow. Researchers retain full rights to publish their findings regardless of whether the results are favorable or unfavorable to Polymarket or the prediction market industry more broadly. There is no embargo period and no pre-publication review by Polymarket or the Institute. This commitment to open research is intended to ensure that the fellowship produces credible, unbiased contributions to the academic literature.

The application process requires candidates to submit a research proposal of up to 1,500 words outlining the question they intend to investigate, the methodology they plan to employ, and the contribution they expect their work to make to the field. Applicants must also provide a data and replication plan of up to 500 words describing the datasets they will use and how other researchers could reproduce their results. A personal statement of up to 300 words explains the candidate's background and motivation for pursuing this research. Finally, applicants must attach a curriculum vitae in PDF format and provide a link to one completed research output such as a paper, preprint, dataset, or code repository.

Fellows receive their $10,000 award upon acceptance into the program and are expected to commit significant time throughout the year to their research. While there are no strict residency requirements, fellows may be invited to participate in periodic virtual or in-person convenings organized by the Institute. The fellowship term runs for one full year from the date of acceptance, and fellows are encouraged to submit their completed work to academic conferences or journals during or shortly after the fellowship period.

The Polymarket Science Fellowship represents a unique opportunity for emerging researchers to investigate one of the fastest-growing segments of information technology. Prediction markets have attracted increasing attention from academics, policymakers, and technologists as a mechanism for aggregating distributed knowledge and generating real-time probabilistic forecasts on events ranging from elections to economic indicators. By supporting rigorous, independent research in this area, the Institute aims to build a stronger scientific foundation for understanding how these markets work and how they can serve the public interest.

For further details and to submit an application, please visit the fellowship page at institute.polymarket.com/fellowship.