Input Output Global Funds University of Edinburgh Blockchain Research Hub

Input Output Global (IOG) is funding a new research hub poised to accelerate the development of blockchain technology in the UK.

Input Output Global Research Hub shall be based on University of Edinburgh following the blockchain infrastructure provider’s $4.5 million in funding for the project.

The hub intends to serve as a place for university students and researchers to propose new projects for blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

It will be led by a steering committee, with both IOG and university representatives, which will review project proposals and allocate funding.

Proposals sent to the hub will contain elements related to IOG products and systems. Researchers from the company have contributed 160 academic articles, many of which are reportedly peer-reviewed.

The research team includes a number of academics, including Aggelos Kiayia’s, head of cyber security and privacy at the university’s School of Informatics. Kiayias is also chief scientist at IOG.

The launch builds on IOG’s existing relationship with the University of Edinburgh, which has previously established a blockchain technology laboratory within the university’s School of Informatics.

The collaboration has “brought many advances to this technological state of the art over the last five years,” says Kiayias.

He points to Ouroboros, a suite of proof-of-stake blockchain protocols, and Ofelimos, a proof-of-work protocol that solves the energy efficiency problem of proof-of-work blockchains, as examples of this.

New learning

The company’s funding of the UK university has been compared to the launch of the Blockchain Research Hub at Stanford University in August this year, which also received $4.5 million in funding.

The company’s CEO, Charles Hoskinson also donated $20 million to the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

These donations are in line with the IOG’s academic program, designed to promote continued research to set industry standards and best practices for emerging technologies.

Hoskinson describes the founding of the Input Output Global Research Hub as “essential to our vision of making academic rigor an industry standard.”

He confirms that the hub intends to “allow blockchain development to grow faster, based on the new learning that will emerge.”

“The establishment of this new research hub is … an important milestone in continuing and scaling this work across the entire university with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research,” adds Kiayias.

IOG is best recognized as the primary developer behind Cardano, an open source, proof-of-stake blockchain platform.