The Imperial College has received a significant donation from the IOTA Foundation. The European non-profit organization granted £1 million to the world-renowned academic institution to investigate possible improvements to the circular economy enabled by decentralized ledger technology (DLT).
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the circular economy envisions a reform of the world’s economic paradigm to minimize or eliminate waste production. As a result, economic agents use a “system solution framework” to avoid negative environmental repercussions.
The ultimate goal would be for people to help “nature regenerate” itself by reducing waste and pollution in the manufacturing and supply chain. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
A circular economy separates economic activity from the use of finite resources. It is a robust system that benefits business, people, and the environment.
In this regard, the IOTA Foundation and Imperial College will work together to establish a research institution to advance the circular economy. The I3-LAB, or Imperial-IOTA-Infrastructures Lab, will be housed in London’s Dyson School of Design Engineering.
The lab will be staffed by distinguished academic personnel from this engineering school, including Robert Shorten, Professor of Cyber-Physical Systems and Deputy Director of the Dyson. Shorten appears to be the appropriate person to lead the initiative, with expertise in smart mobility, smart cities, sharing economy, and DLT.
IOTA founder Dominik Schiener expressed the following on his Twitter account while applauding the crypto industry’s influence to alleviate issues that affect people while developing real-world use cases:
Many of us have gotten involved in cryptocurrency because we sincerely believe in the positive influence we can have. We are here to decentralize, empower, and provide opportunity for all. Let us use the resources we have, such as money, expertise, and communities, to accelerate that impact.
According to Schiener, the developments that will come out of this Circular Economic Lab will be open source, and anyone will access them. In this regard, he invited the IOTA community to participate in the project, adding:
The IOTA Foundation’s initial charity activity will be the first of many. Let us all work together to make a bigger difference.
The Foundation also announced that its commitment to Imperial College would fund doctoral studentships and postdoctoral fellowships for scholars interested in themes such as sustainable business models, tokenization, and others.
The non-profit group also stated that selected initiatives would necessitate collaboration among researchers, local businesspeople, and government officials. As a result, DLT will be used to address a wide range of environmental issues. According to Peter Cheung, Head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering:
We are really grateful to the IOTA Foundation for their assistance. One of the Dyson School’s core research issues is innovation in sustainable growth, and this award will provide new impetus to study on the technology drivers of the circular economy.
MIOTA was trading at $0.87 as press time, with a sideways movement in the previous 24 hours. Following the general trend in the crypto market, the cryptocurrency has returned to support after BTC’s price was rejected at significant resistance.
