- The IOTA Foundation has awarded the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London £1 million to fund research into the use of DLT in the circular economy.
- The grant will fund the creation of the Imperial-IOTA-Infrastructures Lab which will bring together expertise from across the College to conduct research on DLT.
The IOTA Foundation has today announced a £1 million ($1.13 million) philanthropic grant to the Imperial College London. The grant from the non-profit organization will go towards exploring how distributed ledger technology can help promote the circular economy, bringing together some of the brightest minds at the institution in a new lab dedicated to DLT.
In its announcement, the Foundation revealed that the grant will fund the creation of the Imperial-IOTA-Infrastructures Lab (I3-LAB) within the Dyson School of Engineering. I3-LAB will combine research from across the Imperial College, including Robert Shorten, the Professor of Cyber-Physical Systems and Deputy Director of the Dyson School and whose expertise spans DLT, the sharing economy, smart mobility and more.
The focus for I3-LAB researchers will be on the circular economy and the role of DLT in this revolutionary economic model. A circular economy is an alternative to the existing linear economic models which focuses on reducing waste and recycling materials, and in so doing, it dissociates resource consumption from economic growth.
“Distributed ledger technology could provide a platform to support these new “servitized” businesses and help enable the circular economy,” the IOTA Foundation believes.
At a time when global warming has become one of the greatest existential dangers to the human race, the I3-LAB will also focus on the climate crisis and what role DLT can play to reverse it. The Foundation will fund researchers at the Imperial College ” to design sophisticated and implementable solutions for slashing carbon emissions, reducing waste, and more.”
Dominik Scheiner, the chairman, and co-founder of the IOTA Foundation, commented:
The DLT developments we fund will help usher in the circular economy and, most importantly, make our planet habitable for generations to come.
A circular economy built on IOTA
Aside from the circular economy and climate crisis, the IOTA Foundation will also fund doctoral studentships and postdoctoral fellowships for researchers at Imperial College whose interest lies in tokenization and traceability, in line with IOTA’s evolution into an ecosystem that supports tokens and enables traceability.
As CNF reported, IOTA is to debut the Shimmer and Assembly networks this year, with the first being a staging network that incentivizes network upgrades and the other being a decentralized smart contract network for Web 3 and the metaverse respectively.
The two networks each have their own tokens – ASMB and SMR. IOTA announced a month ago that it had launched staking for the two tokens via the Firefly wallet. Once the networks launch this year, the staking rewards will become tradeable.
Read More: May the rewards be with you: IOTA starts Shimmer and Assembly staking
IOTA’s spirit of innovation was well alive throughout 2021, and according to Schiener, this is part of what makes the project what it is today. He commented:
An unwavering belief in constant innovation and meaningful collaboration are part and parcel of everything that makes the IOTA Foundation what it is. By supporting this I3-LAB initiative, we’re furthering our commitment to ushering in a greener future using the most forward-thinking technology possible.
Imperial College was grateful for the grant, with Peter Cheung, the head of the Dyson School of Engineering at the college commenting:
We are incredibly grateful to the IOTA Foundation for their support. Innovation in sustainable growth is one of the key research themes for the Dyson School and this grant will bring new impetus to research on the technological drivers of the circular economy.
Also Read: IOTA advances to Phase 2 in a pre-commercial procurement process for EU blockchain infrastructure
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