Blockchain & Academic Grants
After almost 14 years of existence and constant development, it’s no longer possible to say that blockchain is a brand-new technology. Even the really interesting and exciting features of blockchain, the smart contracts and tokens, are over 7 years old. That’s ancient history in the fast-paced world of digital IT. But their true potential is certainly much greater than simply creating financial products or speculative schemes, and it is still very much up for debate how all this potential can actually be unlocked and applied. There are so many innovative ideas for using blockchain technology, in industrial use cases as well as financial, but only a few have really been tested so far in the real world. The most popular use case so far has been speculating on cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
The most fascinating thing about blockchain technology, however, is the fact that so many people know it will become much more important in the future — beyond Bitcoin, beyond financial products, and waaayyy beyond NFTs — but nobody has yet found the “holy grail” of use cases. For this reason, Blockchain technology is currently a very interesting and popular topic for both researchers and funding bodies.
The Research Funding System
Research projects can provide tremendous value to the industry, especially when they cover basic research topics, which are too generic to be pursued by any company on its own. Companies primarily focus on improving existing products and services, rather than focusing on brand new, bleeding-edge topics. In Europe and North America, it’s really only a few large enterprises that can afford a full research and development department.
That’s where universities and research centers come in. On the one hand, academic research projects provide a framework for companies to collaborate on topics as sponsors without having to carry the full financial burden or risk. On the other hand, the outcome of such research grants, where students and graduates can experiment with new technologies, benefits society as a whole because under normal circumstances the results are published and become part of the public domain of knowledge. Sometimes, funding is also available for teaching applications, rather than research, and here too many funding entities place a premium on teaching the next generation to be natives with cutting-edge technology.
Collaboration between universities and industry has a long history, and these research relationships, once seen as a necessity, are becoming more popular now. It’s a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties and in a surprisingly wide variety of industries. For example, Dyson and Cambridge University opened an engineering design lab together, while Oxford University famously worked together with AstraZeneca to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.
But if even profitable companies can’t afford large research budgets, how do universities, which are frequently underfunded? Research projects are often dependent on sponsorships and grants, either from individual companies, non-governmental organizations, or public funds from regional, national, and international bodies. The collaboration between government, industry, and academia has come to be known as the Triple Helix model, and in many parts of the world offers more funding opportunities than the private sector alone. Government grants often focus on R&D in areas of social concern. For example, the EU has outlined five policy goals that will guide its allocation of funding, with the priorities being a “ more competitive and smarter Europe,” and a greener, low-carbon economy. The EU also has area-specific funds, such as COST, which furthers research in science and technology.
But just because funding exists somewhere, does not mean it’s easy to access. There is a strict and often complicated process to navigate in order to find funding, let alone apply for it. That’s where the unsung heroes of research ply their trade — enter the Grant Writers.
The Fine Art of Grant Writing
Grant writing is a specialized skill that is in high demand both in academia and industry. It can take months to prepare the complex proposals, and the time from submitting grants to getting an answer can take even longer. A successful application depends on a variety of factors, including the relevance of the topic, the reputation of the researcher(s), and the timing and dimensioning of the budget being requested. A clear and well-written proposal is important for getting positive peer reviews, and luck with the selection of peer reviewers plays an unfortunately oversized role as well.
But finally, after all the technical criteria have been passed, the most important part of the proposal is the short description of the project, regardless of how much blood, sweat, and tears went into the bulk of the proposal or the many pages of scientific data backing up the argument for why the idea is worth the funding. The short description needs to reflect the importance of a proposal with a few perfectly worded sentences.
The best way to highlight the importance of a research project, since the application is often first reviewed by non-scientific personnel, is to use relevant terms, or buzzwords, that are important to the funding body’s mission and funding goals. Some of the buzzwords du jour include “Artificial Intelligence,” “Sustainability,” “Nanotechnology,” “IoT,” “Web3,” and of course “Blockchain Technology.”
Leveraging New Technologies to Secure Funding
Because there has not yet been a killer application for blockchain, aside from cryptocurrency speculation, and because many believe that the discovery of blockchain’s killer app is just a matter of time, it receives a lot of focus from funders and applicants alike. For example, as of February 2022, the EU has spent over 347 Million Euros on blockchain technology grants, mostly via the Horizon 2020 initiative. The projects that received funding have applied blockchain to food security, IoT, Big Data, cybersecurity, and improving sustainability in manufacturing and supply chains, among many other use cases.
Looking at funding records like this, it’s clear that Blockchain Technology is a high-profile research topic at the moment for a variety of industries and funders. Fortunately for grant writers, there is quite a lot of room for applicability, and there are many ways that projects can take advantage of blockchain’s buzz to access funding.
As we have previously discussed, we see the fundamental value of blockchain technology as distilled into the four token economy essentials: documentation, tokenization (as a mix of quantification, accounting, and fragmentation), governance, and value conversion (aka trading). Virtually every scientific discipline can already benefit from improved documentation. But even more interesting is value conversion, which is not just limited to trading, but also the conversion of information value, which we have described in other articles about our proprietary solution, TokenWARP.
In short, integrating a flexible, popular technology like blockchain into a research proposal in order to make it eligible for further grant money is not only beneficial from a funding standpoint, but also furthers the practical use and development of the technology.
If this sounds a bit mercenary, don’t worry; it’s a common practice in the world of grants. For example, it’s a tactic used by underfunded humanities departments to access STEM grants through new research areas like “neurohumanities,” while also creating bridges for collaboration between disciplines that otherwise would not overlap. Ultimately, it helps funds get to where they are needed most while incentivizing creativity, innovation, and collaboration in research.
Blockchain for Research & Education
Research is the beating heart of every university, but that is only made possible by funding. Good grant writers know how to leverage cutting-edge topics that are popular with funders to unlock the resources needed to accomplish their research goals. At the moment, blockchain is an attractive topic for funders because of its flexibility and potential to make a variety of use cases more efficient and secure. This flexibility also benefits researchers who can easily integrate it into a wide variety of projects in order to access the large pool of both public and private funds available for the technology’s R&D.
Whether you’re in research or education, CoreLedger’s Active Sandbox and Custom Token are affordable, flexible, easy-to-use tools that can help you achieve your funding goals. The Active Sandbox is also an ideal teaching tool for students to get hands-on experience with digital assets and token economies in the classroom. Get in touch with us to learn more about quickly and affordably leveraging blockchain technology for education or research.
At CoreLedger, we believe that blockchain is a practical technical solution to improve and solve a wide variety of issues across industries and sectors, which is why we try to cut through the hype and focus on real-world applications, not just what’s technically possible.
CoreLedger’s mission is to help businesses of all sizes quickly and affordably access the benefits of blockchain technology. From issuing a simple token to enterprise-grade token economy solutions, we have all the tools you need to quickly and affordably integrate blockchain into your business whether you’re a new startup or a big multinational enterprise.
Interested in our results-focused, real-world approach? Then visit our website for more information, or get in touch with us directly to discuss your project.
