Interest in blockchain is soaring, with a groundswell of activity taking place on the campuses of the world’s top universities. From new business use cases — such as making cross-border payments faster, lower cost and more transparent — to uses of blockchain for good, students and faculty globally are emerging as major contributors to the creation of a more robust and valuable blockchain and payments ecosystem.

As one of the most mature companies in the space, Ripple is uniquely suited to partner with the academic community and help lead development of this ecosystem. That’s why, today, we’re excited to announce the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), a collaboration with top universities around the world to support and accelerate academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Ripple has committed over $50 million in funding, subject matter expertise and technical resources to UBRI’s first wave of university partners —17 prestigious institutions around the world. These schools will determine their own research topics and priority areas of focus, while also partnering with Ripple to:

Collaborate on research and technical development that will stimulate widespread understanding and innovation in blockchain.

Create new curriculum to meet high student demand for learning about blockchain, cryptocurrency and other FinTech topics.

Stimulate ideas and dialog among students, faculty, technologists and business leaders on topics of shared interest.

The initial UBRI partners represent a broad cross-section of geographies and markets, as well as a rich blend of academic disciplines.

For example, as the regulatory conversation continues to evolve in the public sector, the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) at Princeton University is creating an UBRI program that will study the policy impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the U.S. and around the world.

At The University of Pennsylvania, UBRI is supporting select MBA-MS candidates each year in a newly established Wharton-Engineering dual-degree program. This funding aims to prioritize students working on blockchain or cryptocurrency.

As part of UBRI, Ripple is also participating in MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab’s new FinTech initiative made up of a nearly a dozen companies across the financial services industry to work with groups of CSAIL’s 116+ researchers on topics like blockchain, cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity and global payments.

In Europe, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the University of Luxembourg are building a new blockchain research program inside their Departments of Computer Science and Engineering with the help of UBRI.

UBRI’s complete list of partners is as follows:

As the traditional backbone of innovation, universities uniquely offer an independence and rigor that the private sector cannot. They also are responsible for training the workforce of the future, helping to address the demand for technological solutions and talent to solve the world’s hardest financial problems.

Now is the perfect time to support research and study in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments at universities around the world.

For more on UBRI — as we build the program over the coming year — please visit Ripple Insights.