IOTA, a blockchain ecosystem, has funded the I3-Lab at Imperial College London. IOTA has provided £1 million to support the research facility. According to the firm, the college is also providing additional funding.
IOTA seeks to advance highly scalable distributed ledger technology (DLT) for Web3 applications.
The Lab is said to consist of PhD students and several senior researchers.
The IOTA Foundation’s Applied Research Team, led by Dr. William Sanders, IOTA’s Director of Applied Research, will collaborate with the Lab.
The I3-Lab apparently has secured grants for the following projects:
- Autofair, a Horizon Europe project to combat bias-free AI algorithms
- iCircular3, which aims to improve circularity in industrial robots, electric vehicles, and outdoor power products
- CoDiet, which will address diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity through diet-monitoring tech and personalized nutrition
- Initiatives advancing battery passport tech in response to the upcoming EU Battery Regulation, predictive analytic tools to detect off-shoring of pollution
IOTA noted that it has previously provided a £1 million grant to the founding of the I3-Lab for circular economy research within Imperial’s Dyson School of Design Engineering. IOTA also endowed £155,000 toward designing a congestion control algorithm, a new design paradigm for DLTs.
Dominik Schiener, co-founder and Chairman of the IOTA Foundation, described the Lab as a major stride in addressing climate change.
“Only when we see the value in bringing together experts in fields such as science, technology, philanthropy, DLT, and regulation will we be able to help businesses and consumers realize the potential of circular economy models and change behavior across the board.”
