Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative nurtures engagement in students

finextra.com:

UBRI has recently partnered with Trinity College Dublin, EPITA, IE Madrid, University of Trento, adding to their 10 university partners in Europe to further blockchain study and education. Since 2018 the initiative has committed $11 million to its academic partners, aiming to make Europe the centre of blockchain advancement. The partnerships will focus on new developments in the fintech and crypto field, such as decentralised networks, quantum research, and blockchain smart contract verification.

Finextra spoke with senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Ripple, Eric van Miltenburg, on how educated students with blockchain and Web 3.0 knowledge will lead to success in the future.

According to van Miltenburg, students involved in the UBRI courses will have the opportunity to gain real-world experience through practical use cases, engaging with exciting new initiatives in labs and accelerators backed by the grant.

“One of our early European partners was the University of Oxford, where UBRI supports professor of entrepreneurship and innovation, Pinar Ozcan, and her team at the Oxford Future of Finance and Technology Initiative. Oxford used UBRI funds for a fellowship to hire a Postdoc to tackle the ambiguity surrounding CBDCs, using an ecosystem lens in a university research initiative.

“Our partners at the University of Zurich in Switzerland offered a Masters course in blockchain, designed to give students an overview of the technology from a technical, economic, business and legal perspective. In the UBRI-developed course, students were encouraged to create their own real-world blockchain start-up companies.”

Ripple has supported the integration of over 500 university-level courses globally using UBRI grants,