IOTA and Imperial College London Launch I3-Lab for Circular Economy Research

The
I3-Lab
at
Imperial
College
London,
co-funded
by
the
IOTA
Foundation,
has
officially
launched,
focusing
on
circular
economy
research
through
digital
tools.
The
lab
aims
to
innovate
sustainable
business
models
and
technologies
to
decouple
economic
growth
from
resource
consumption,
according
to
the

IOTA
Foundation
Blog.

Launch
of
I3-Lab
at
Imperial
College
London

The
I3-Lab,
short
for
Imperial
IOTA
Infrastructure
Lab,
is
a
state-of-the-art
research
facility
that
received
a
£1
million
donation
from
the
IOTA
Foundation.
Additional
funding
was
provided
by
Imperial
College
and
grant
support
from
UK
Research
and
Innovation
and
the
European
Union.
The
lab
is
hosted
at
iCUBE,
a
dedicated
space
for
pioneering
sustainability
research.

Empowering
the
Circular
Economy

The
I3-Lab
focuses
on
developing
digital
instruments
to
empower
the
circular
economy.
Traditional
business
models
link
resource
consumption
to
economic
growth,
leading
to
unsustainable
practices.
The
circular
economy
aims
to
break
this
link
by
promoting
sustainability
through
reuse
and
recycling.
IOTA’s
distributed
ledger
technology
(DLT)
is
already
being
utilized
in
projects
like
the
Trade
Logistics
Information
Pipeline
(TLIP)
and
Digital
Product
Passports.

More
About
I3-Lab

A
unique
aspect
of
the
I3-Lab
is
its
focus
on
new
ownership
and
business
models
based
on
servitization.
These
models
facilitate
sharing
and
on-demand
access
to
goods,
services,
and
materials,
moving
away
from
conventional
sole
ownership.
The
lab
has
already
secured
grants
for
projects
like
Autofair,
iCircular3,
and
CoDiet.
The
I3-Lab
team
includes
five
PhD
students
and
several
senior
researchers,
aiming
for
a
total
team
of
around
25
people.
The
lab
is
housed
in
a
meticulously
restored
Victorian
building,
adding
historic
charm
to
the
cutting-edge
research
facility.

The
Foundation’s
Applied
Research
Team,
led
by
Dr.
William
Sanders,
IOTA’s
Director
of
Applied
Research,
will
collaborate
with
the
projects
involved
with
the
Lab.
Dr.
Sanders
is
also
a
visiting
researcher
at
the
Lab.

IOTA
and
Imperial

The
I3-Lab
is
the
latest
development
in
the
ongoing
collaboration
between
the
IOTA
Foundation
and
Imperial
College
London.
Previously,
IOTA
funded
grant
work
for
Imperial’s
Professor
Robert
Shorten,
and
Dr.
Pietro
Ferraro,
now
part
of
the
IOTA
team,
contributed
to
this
grant
as
a
postdoc,
working
on
the
IOTA
Congestion
Control
algorithm
and
co-authoring
several
publications
on
IOTA.

The
I3-Lab
is
expected
to
set
the
stage
for
new
approaches
to
sustainability
and
the
circular
economy.
The
research
findings
will
be
published
as
they
become
available.

Image
source:
Shutterstock