The Chainlink Community Grant Program has been launched to financially support developers and researchers working on the Chainlink ecosystem, focusing on creating developer tools, enhancing data quality, and launching services to expand the Chainlink Network. One of the grant recipients, Giulia Fanti, a notable academic in blockchain and distributed systems, will collaborate with Chainlink Labs to research order fairness in blockchain transactions and improve the scalability of Chainlink’s off-chain aggregation. Her work aims to reduce miner extractable value (MEV) and build secure, cost-effective oracle computations. Fanti, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts, has been recognized for her contributions to blockchain research, including anonymous routing for cryptocurrencies. The grant program aims to empower the Chainlink community to drive the development of hybrid smart contracts and secure oracle networks, fostering rapid growth of the Chainlink ecosystem.