Polymarket Opens Its Trading Data to Academic Research
The move comes as market prices appear more often in news coverage and risk analysis, while academics still debate how reliable those signals are.
Polymarket has launched a research institute built around academic fellowships and wider access to platform data. The company says researchers will control their own questions, methods and publication decisions.
Research Starts with Doctoral Fellowships
The first program will be the Polymarket Science Fellowship for doctoral researchers worldwide. Participants will study prediction markets, forecasting, information economics and related fields.
The research list is broad. It includes market accuracy, price formation, liquidity, resolution integrity, cryptography, security, artificial intelligence, elections and macroeconomic forecasting. Fellows will also take part in workshops and work toward publishable studies.
The Polymarket Institute will be led by Kai Brusch, the platform’s head of data, as managing director. Brian Jabarian, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, will serve as scientific director. Fortune reported that Jabarian will not receive personal compensation for the role.
Polymarket says it will not set preferred conclusions or require academics to publish with company employees. Researchers will retain publication rights. Fellows will also be barred from trading on Polymarket and similar platforms during their work with the institute.
Data Access Extends beyond Headline Prices
The institute plans to expand access to Polymarket’s public market data through a suite of APIs. Researchers will be able to use market discovery records, order books, historical time series, on-chain aggregates, and trading activity.
Code, datasets, and replication materials may also be placed in public repositories. This would allow outside researchers to check results rather than relying on a company summary.
The details are important because prediction market studies often depend on incomplete or fragmented records. Prices show the market’s final signal, but they do not explain who moved it, how liquidity changed, or whether a settlement dispute affected trading.
Polymarket Follows an Existing Industry Move
This is not the first research initiative by one of the leading prediction markets. In 2025, Kalshi set up its own research unit and offered platform data to academics from several US universities.
Polymarket has made research independence and reproducibility central to the institute’s public framework. Those commitments will determine how the institute is evaluated.
The company is funding the program and supplying the data, so publication rights alone will not settle questions about independence. Researchers require access conditions, documentation, and an opportunity to publish information that contradicts the claims made by Polymarket.