Don and Alex Tapscott, co-authors of Blockchain Revolution, have launched the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) to provide industry players with actionable information on blockchain applications.

Based in Toronto, Canada, the BRI employs a team of about 100 researchers that came from academia, government or financial services, and works on a membership basis: companies can pay a fee to join the organisation, accessing but also influencing the research conducted by the institute.

“We sit with each member for about an hour and a half with our research director and whoever their member services executive is, and we ask them what they would like to know, what areas they are having problems with or in which areas they would like to see blockchain implemented on a bigger scale.

“We produce that kind of thought leadership for them and they are then able to make decisions more accurately because they are provided with relevant information that they wouldn’t have had access to before,” a BRI spokesperson tells GTR.

“Beyond deep research, the big thing we’re focusing on is execution. Our member services executives are compensated based on how well the members implement the strategies that we provide them with. It’s a business model that’s completely different from anything we’ve ever seen.”

The BRI will start with 30 research projects across eight industries: manufacturing, retail, media, technology, financial services, energy, government and healthcare. It will also study the way blockchain technology intersects with management: how chief information, marketing or security officers’ job and business outlook will change because of blockchain.

Each project will be led by a global leader from the industry studied. For example, the head of the CIO research is Oliver Bussmann, former CIO of UBS and a recognised blockchain thought leader.

Founding members include Accenture, IBM, SAP, Digital Asset, NASDAQ, Pepsico, Centrica, Liberty Global, the province of Ontario, University Health Network, Nuco Inc, Paycase, Artlery, Votem, Cosmos, Youbase and Wisekey. The BRI has also partnered with affiliate organisations such as the Hyperledger Project, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, Coala.io and Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

“The BRI is proud to partner with different organisations doing similar work. The market is becoming a little bit saturated, there are a lot of organisations that are bringing together big companies to develop products, but the work that we’re doing is very unique and we wanted to highlight that. That’s why we’re partnering, not competing with them,” the spokesperson adds.

More information can be found at www.blockchainresearchinstitute.org.