Ripple Research Initiative Turns 5, Awarding 500 Fellowships, Partnering Over 50 Universities Worldwide

After setting a record in providing technical development, innovation support, and academic research in blockchain, the Ripple University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) turned five today.

The initiative started in 2018 as a way for Ripple to solidify the role of the blockchain in an inevitable decentralized future.

As of this writing, UBRI has partnered with over 50 universities worldwide, supported over 1,000 scholarly articles and research in finance, blockchain, and decentralization, and awarded more than 500 fellowships.

According to a media release by Team Ripple, UBRI marked its fifth anniversary as a research initiative covering a wide variety of topics and industries within the breadth of blockchain technology.

– Advertisement –

Top UBRI Partners in Academia

The team expressed its satisfaction with the initiative, as it went on to highlight the blockchain’s impressive milestone for pioneering seven of the world’s top 10 university blockchain programs.

As UBRI partners, these programs continue to provide quality insights across blockchain development, innovation, entrepreneurship, central banks oversight, and financial services provision.

University professors across leading universities like the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton, Georgetown University, and the University College of London have published significant work across academia to inform mainstream crypto adoption, global policies and implementation, innovation, and the adoption of promising next-generation technology.

For this reason, UBRI found the need to support universities that are willing to accelerate blockchain education through an in-house academic program.

Notable programs that Ripple has successfully helped kickstart through the UBRI initiative include the NUS Fintech Lab, the IIT Bombay Centre of Excellence, Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, the Wharton Blockchain and Digital Assets Project, and the Lab for Inclusive Fintech, among others.

According to the University of Berkeley’s official website, the institution’s multi-million-dollar partnership with Ripple’s research initiative (UBRI) aims to support blockchain innovation through research grants and exemplary leadership.

The UBRI Connect Annual Conference

UBRI Connect, an annual conference showcasing blockchain research breakthroughs, has brought together some of the world’s prestigious academic leaders.

According to Ripple, Berkeley, London, and Toronto are among the event hosts, with guests like Upenn Wharton Law Professor Kevin Werbach, Duke Finance Professor Cambel Harvey, and Stanford University Finance Professor Darell Duffie, among other notable talents.

As the adoption of blockchain intensifies, career pathways are widening across the industry, A situation  UBRI says has witnessed in the last five years since its inception.

For this reason, the initiative aims to become a strategic partner in research, policy implementation, and innovation support that propels the industry forward.

This anniversary comes at the height of increasingly positive XRP market sentiment following its July win against SEC in a ruling that sought to justify XRP as a digital asset and not an illegal security, as the SEC had contended.