A London-based startup has introduced an innovative solution aimed at securing intellectual property in both academia and business.
Research misconduct remains a widespread issue, with many cases unresolved each year. To address this, a deep tech startup in London has developed Research Integrity Chain (RICH), the first blockchain-powered scientific application designed to protect and monetise research intellectual property, bridging a critical gap in academic integrity.
Figures from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General and the Office of Research Integrity reveal that between 2020 and 2024, an average of 280 research misconduct cases were reported annually. However, only around 87 cases were closed each year.
Research conducted by Arthur M. Michalek estimates that institutions spend approximately $525,000 per misconduct investigation. When applied to the 433 investigations closed by ORI and NSF over five years, this suggests institutions allocate around $45 million annually to address research misconduct.
Looking at the wider economic impact, the losses are substantial. Based on NSF data and additional estimates, research misconduct in the US could result in losses reaching $29.0 billion by 2025. These losses, which stem from fabrication, plagiarism, and data manipulation, account for approximately 3% in direct losses and 7% in indirect losses within the $1 trillion research market.
Dmytro Shestakov, CEO and co-founder of RICH, says “We have a clear answer to this challenge. We prevent forgery and ensure integrity of researchers’ IP rights for every single piece of data they work with”. “The data is further tokenized and can be proved by immutable, traceable and verifiable research records.”
“Think of it as a researcher’s tool where everyone can view what’s written, but no one can remove or change earlier entries without everyone knowing or agreeing on,” adds Dr. Balaji Panchapakesan, Fulbright Research Scholar, Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, Sloan Fellow in Leadership and Strategy at London Business School, Faculty Research Achievement Award winner at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Advising and Mentoring Award winner at University of Louisville, and National Science Foundation CAREER Award winner.
The next iteration of the RICH application will integrate seamlessly into existing workflows. “We have launched and right now providing research copyright protection to individual researchers and research teams” Dmytro emphasizes. “In another word, we offer an additional layer of security without disrupting established processes for the price of 2 cups of coffee and that’s just the beginning”.
RICH’s technical advantage lies in its application of blockchain technology to create what is essentially an immutable digital ledger for research. The platform tokenizes research data and creates verifiable timestamps for each step of the research process, from initial hypothesis to final publication. Their answer attends to four important research community needs:
1. Protecting unpublished intellectual property
2. Secure data authenticity verification
3. Safe collaboration in research
4. Prospect for research monetization
The timing couldn’t be more crucial. Against the backdrop of problems associated with research misconduct, there is a growing problem with the untraceable use of AI in critical areas of our life such as medicine, politics, elections, etc. While the unchecked use of AI in medicine is a huge problem of unknown magnitude whose consequences we have yet to explore, the processes involved in the cognitive-behavioural manipulation of people using major internet platforms and social media are already having obvious disastrous consequences.
In a recent letter, European affairs ministers want the European Commission to use its powers under the Digital Services Act to protect the integrity of European elections from foreign interference and manipulation of information. In their pledge, they cite growing threats of destructive foreign interference in elections by Russia and China, which threaten their stability and sovereignty.
The described phenomena need to be regulated by the EU AI Act: first regulation on artificial intelligence, The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act and should formally ensure transparency and traceability of the described processes.
The RICH provides a relevant but technical ready-to-use solution for academic and any other institutions struggling with research integrity problems. The platform tackles the “perimeter problem” — the difficulty of safeguarding research at the pre-publication stage when information must be distributed but its usage cannot be regulated. What’s more, RICH gives to their users the necessary transparency at every stage with the ability to trace the lifecycle of content from its creation to official release, protecting intellectual property rights.
“RICH enables something previously impossible in academia – proving research authenticity and ownership in real-time,” said Balaji. “This could fundamentally change how researchers protect their work.”
With research showing that questionable research practices affect between 10% and 50% of researchers, RICH’s launch marks a significant step forward in protecting scholarly integrity in the digital age.
For a free trial visit: https://researchintegritychain.com/
