Romain Pellerin, the developer of Cardano blockchain, has announced that Input Output Global (IOG) will be funding a $4.5 million blockchain research hub at Stanford University.

Taking place over the course of three years, funding applications will be open to faculty, undergraduate and graduate students from multidisciplinary backgrounds. The proposal deadline is set for November 2022.

With the help of Dan Boneh and David Mazières, two professors who specialize in cryptography, Stanford University in Palo Alto, California opened a Center for Blockchain Research back in 2018. According to Tim Harrison, vice president of Community and Ecosystem at IOG, this new research hub is part of an ongoing collaboration. He explained: “Before the research hub, we previously donated $500,000 to fund their research into blockchain scalability. As one of the world’s leading academic institutions, Stanford is an ideal location for the hub.”

With the research hub, CEO Charles Hoskinson said, “blockchain development can grow even faster, based on the new learnings that will emerge, and the hub will add a new layer of validity to our sector that we haven’t always been afforded.”

IOG has previously established research labs with the University of Edinburgh, University of Wyoming, University of Athens and Tokyo Institute of Technology. Last year, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson donated $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to establish the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics.

Harrison added: “Healthy competition is a vital part of any growing industry, but especially in its early days, every player also needs to play its part in growing the space as a whole. Researchers at the university will be able to put forward innovative projects that will impact the blockchain industry.”