Grants given for Blockchain in science
1 May 2018 by Evoluted New Media
Two teams have received a grant made available to any project implementing Blockchain in science, especially those that addressed the dissemination of research.
Research technology incubator, Digital Science has announced the recipients of its Blockchain Catalyst Grant as Datax – who are developing a system to improve the datasets available for machine learning – and VIVO who proposed the use of Blockchain to create new models of research value based on a diverse set of research outcomes.
“Blockchain has fantastic potential for scientific research, and we were keen to explore what early-stage, innovative ideas were out there,” said Steve Scott, Director of Portfolio Development, Digital Science. “We were genuinely surprised at both the number of entries for this specialist area and the high quality of all the applications.”
Blockchain technology has become known in the financial sector through cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum; the technology has also proved to be valuable in logistics as well as supporting the Internet of Things and other areas. Scholarly communication and open science can benefit from the transparency, distributed consensus, accountability, proof of existence, evidence of change, that Blockchain technology can bring.
The team at Datax in Hong Kong are developing a project that will allow researchers to crowdsource data with which to train AI's, while owners of datasets can commercialise their data assets, with the confidence in the exchange provided by Blockchain technology.
“This grant will make a real difference to the development of our new platforms,” said Kevin Wong, Co-Founder of Datax. “It will help us put our plans into action by speeding up the development of data crowdsourcing and exchange platform on the Blockchain.”
VIVO, a team based in the United States, proposed the use of Blockchain to reward researchers for creating, curating, reusing and improving scientific content, including figures, code, datasets, manuscripts, preprints, and projects.
The next Catalyst Grant deadline is June 30th 2018. Find out more at www.digital-science.com/catalyst-grant
