# flashbots/mev-research is a research hub, not a code repository > The mev-research repository is the working surface of the Flashbots research organisation, holding the research proposal process, the topic map, the publication index, workshop records and a manifest of intent. There is almost no code in it, and the interesting part for a newcomer is the process, because grants through the proposal programme are currently paused while collaboration is not. **flashbots/mev-research** — Project management for MEV Research - Repository: https://github.com/flashbots/mev-research - Stars: 1,004 · Forks: 227 - Language: Python - License: not declared - Published: 2026-10-19 · Updated: 2026-10-19 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/flashbots-mev-research ## The repository is the organisation's working surface The description of this repository is one line long, and it is worth taking at face value. It is project management for MEV research. What sits in the tree is documentation. There is a `manifesto.md`, a `process.md` describing how research proposals are handled, a `grants.md`, a `topics.md`, a `publications.md`, a `resources.md` and a `workshops.md`, an `FRP-template.md` at the root, and an `FRPs/` directory holding the proposals themselves. There are also `assets/`, `docs/` and a `tools/` directory. The primary language is listed as Python, which is presumably the tooling, not the research. The context is Flashbots, described in the README as a research and development organisation focused on the impact MEV has on state-rich blockchains such as Ethereum. MEV is described as a multidisciplinary topic, and the research explores MEV market dynamics and blockchain design challenges at the intersection of economics, security and cryptography. Two phrases in the description explain the shape of the thing. The first is that research and development operate hand in hand, forming a dual engine, which is the reason a research hub exists next to the code rather than instead of it. The second is that all research efforts are open to the public and highly collaborative, which is the reason the proposal process is open to anyone. The stated aim is to build a sustainable research organisation where ambitious researchers can focus on the most interesting research problems, unencumbered by the friction of academia and the shackles of the industries. Whether that has been achieved is not for the repository to say, but the intent explains why the process documents are as prominent as the research index. ## The proposal process is open, and the grants are not The research proposal programme, FRP, is the part of this repository a newcomer can act on. The process document describes it as a way to fuel the collaborative nature of the research. Anybody can submit a research proposal for consideration. Upon community review, proposals are considered for becoming part of the research, and might become eligible for a grant. Then comes the sentence that changes what the programme currently means. Grant giving through the proposal programme is currently paused, but the organisation remains open to collaboration through the program. That is an important distinction for anyone considering submitting. The intake is still open and the review still happens, so a proposal is still worth writing as a way into the work, but a proposal should not be written as a funding application. A researcher looking for money should look elsewhere, and a researcher looking for a collaboration and a review process should not be deterred by the pause. The mechanics are in the files. `process.md` holds the process, `FRPs/` holds the ongoing proposals so you can see what is already in flight, `grants.md` describes the grants that are issued, and `FRP-template.md` is the template a new proposal follows. Past proposals are archived in the FRP section of the Flashbots Forum, and the current ones are in the repository. Reading the ongoing proposals before writing your own is the cheapest way to understand what the process is looking for, and it is also how you avoid duplicating work that is already underway. ## Topics are split between core systems and the wider landscape The `topics.md` file and the surrounding documentation describe the research scope, and there is a deliberate distinction in it. Some of the topics are directly related to the organisation's auction and privacy systems. Those are described as initial explorations around problems that will eventually need to be solved for the project to ultimately succeed. In other words, they are open research questions that the organisation's own systems will have to answer, and the research is a way of answering them early and in public. Other topics are more loosely related and are described as part of a wider effort to illuminate the MEV landscape to level the playing field for all actors involved. That second category is the more interesting one for an outsider. A system-specific question has a defined answer and a defined consumer. A question about the shape of the MEV landscape has no owner, and the value of answering it is that it lowers the information asymmetry for everyone else who operates in that space. The same openness runs through the rest of the resource set. There is a Research Problem Database, hosted as a Notion page, which the README describes as a place to see recent and ongoing work together with the topics on which the organisation hopes to see community research. That is a statement of intent as much as a link, since a problem database is only useful if the organisation is willing to state which questions it has not answered. The research itself is published elsewhere, on Flashbots Writings and on the Flashbots Forum, and the README links both. The repository is the index, the process and the manifest, not the publication venue. ## Publications, workshops and a vault of older material The repository carries several indexes, and they cover different time horizons. `publications.md` is an index of recent publications by the research team, with a searchable version published at flashbots.github.io, which is a static site built from the repository itself. That is a small but telling detail. The searchable publication index is generated from the same markdown the team maintains, so the list cannot drift away from the papers without the diff showing it. `resources.md` is described as a research vault, a selection of research papers and posts on MEV topics. The distinction between the two is that one is the organisation's own output and the other is the field's, which is what makes the vault useful to someone new to the area, because it says where the boundaries of the work are and what the team considers the important prior art. `workshops.md` records past research workshops, and the recordings of those workshops and talks are on the Flashbots YouTube channel. A workshop is a different artefact from a paper. A paper is a claim with an argument, and a workshop is a problem being worked on in public with people who might disagree, which for a research organisation trying to build a community is arguably the more valuable of the two. The forum is where the discussion lives, and the README distinguishes the forum from the repository, with the forum's own research and FRP categories referenced separately. The overall structure is a common pattern for an open research organisation: a repository for the durable documents, a forum for the discussion, a site for the published output, and a video channel for the events. ## The manifesto is the part to read first The `manifesto.md` file at the root is the statement of intent, and it is a different kind of document from the rest of the repository. The README's language about the friction of academia and the shackles of the industries is a position on how research should be organised, and the manifesto is where that position is written out. An organisation that publishes a manifesto alongside its process documents is making a claim about its own incentives, and a researcher deciding whether to spend a month on a proposal is entitled to read that claim and judge it. It also tells you what kind of work the organisation wants. The values referenced in the README, which is where the openness comes from, are the reason all the research efforts are public and collaborative, and the reason the proposal intake is open to anybody rather than to a closed list of invited groups. For a reader trying to work out what Flashbots actually does, the manifesto and the topic list together are the two documents that answer it. The publications show the output, the process shows the intake, and the topic file shows the map. The manifesto is the only one that says what the organisation thinks it is for. That is a reasonable four document reading path for anyone evaluating this project. ## Where this repository is the wrong place to look The limitation is obvious once you understand what the repository is, and it is worth stating because the name suggests otherwise. There is no research here. The papers are on Flashbots Writings and the Flashbots Forum, the searchable index is a view over a markdown list, and the ongoing proposals are documents rather than code. Someone looking for a methodology, a dataset or an implementation will not find one here, and the `tools/` directory is the only hint that anything executable exists at all. The second limitation is the pause. Grants through the proposal programme are currently paused, and the documentation does not say for how long. A researcher whose plan depends on the grant rather than on the collaboration should treat that as unresolved, because the honest reading of the sentence is that the intake is open, the review is open, and the money is not. The alternative to engaging with this process is not another organisation's process but a different kind of engagement. The research vault and the forum are the routes for a researcher who wants to contribute to the conversation without submitting a proposal, and the workshop recordings are a way to see how the organisation actually works before committing to anything. The honest summary of this project is that it is a well organised piece of research administration, openly published, with the research itself elsewhere. For a reader deciding whether Flashbots is a serious organisation, the manifesto and the publications index answer that. For a researcher deciding whether to participate, the process document and the list of ongoing FRPs answer that. Neither question is answered by the code, because there is hardly any code to look at. ## Conclusion mev-research suits a researcher or engineer who wants to find out what MEV work is already in progress, wants to see how Flashbots structures an open proposal process, or wants to contribute a research proposal. It is the wrong place to look for the research itself, since the papers and posts live on the Flashbots Writings site and the forum, and the wrong place to look for funding, since grant giving through the proposal programme is currently paused. Check first the topic list and the problem database before submitting a proposal, since the review process looks for work that complements what is already under way. ## FAQ ### What is the flashbots/mev-research repository? It is the research hub of the Flashbots organisation, described in the repository as project management for MEV research. It holds the manifesto, the research proposal process, the topic list, the publication index, workshop records and a research vault, rather than the research papers themselves. ### What is a Flashbots Research Proposal and who can submit one? An FRP is a research proposal, and the process document says that anybody can submit one for consideration. After community review, proposals are considered for becoming part of the research and might become eligible for a grant, although grant giving through the FRP programme is currently paused while collaboration remains open. ### Where are the actual Flashbots research papers? The repository points to Flashbots Writings and the Flashbots Forum for the published work, and carries an index of recent publications in publications.md with a searchable version at flashbots.github.io/mev-research. A selection of papers and posts on MEV topics is collected in the research vault in resources.md. ### What research topics does Flashbots cover? The README describes two groups. Some topics are directly related to the organisation's auction and privacy systems and are initial explorations of problems that need solving for the project to succeed, and others are more loosely related and form a wider effort to illuminate the MEV landscape and level the playing field for all actors involved. ## Sources - [flashbots/mev-research on GitHub](https://github.com/flashbots/mev-research) - [Issues](https://github.com/flashbots/mev-research/issues) - [README](https://github.com/flashbots/mev-research/blob/main/README.md) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/flashbots-mev-research