Blockchain developer Protocol Labs has launched a multi-million dollar research grant program.

The startup, which is behind projects such as Filecoin, IPFS and Coinlist, on Tuesday announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) program that will see an initial $5 million put towards research efforts. Successful bids will receive grants between $5,000 and $200,000, the company said in a statement on its blog.

Protocol Labs explained:

“The first RFPs solicit improvements to components used in Filecoin and a breakthrough that may dramatically simplify consensus protocol including Filecoin’s. Future RFPs will fund problems across our whole stack of protocols, from Multiformats to Filecoin, and we also welcome open problems and suggestions for work we may be interested in funding.”

The firm listed a number of projects on its Github page for developers to look into as a starting point. However, “Due to the open-ended nature of these problems, it’s worth noting that we may end up choosing more than one proposal per open problem,” it stated.

Research applications will be judged on the quality of the proposed research and relevant experience of the individual or team. Completed solutions are not eligible to apply, states the post.

Solutions must be open source, and therefore accessible to the broader developer community.

To support the effort, the company further announced it is hosting meetups and other events to help facilitate discussion around the technical problems that need solving to improve the space. Further, if the scheme proves successful, Protocol Labs hopes to expand the program in future.

Miniatures and coins image via Shutterstock