Ripple has announced it is setting aside millions of dollars to fund university-based research into blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

According to a news announcement published Monday, the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) will see the distributed ledger payments startup collaborate with 17 universities from across the globe to boost academic research within the industry.

Ripple says it will put over $50 million, as well as its own expertise and "technical resources," into funding the initiative's first group of university partners. The institutions will be able to set their research topics independently, according to the announcement.

The payments firm, which offers several blockchain-based products that are seeing growing adoption within the banking and money transfer industries, aims as part of the effort to collaborate on R&D that will "stimulate understanding and innovation" around blockchain, and also to help set up new curriculums to open up the technology to students.

The initiative is already getting off the ground at some universities, with the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton creating a program to study the policy impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the U.S. and globally.

And, among others, UBRI is also participating in a fintech initiative at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab to work with researchers on topics including blockchain, cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity and international payments.

Outside the U.S., the project's 17 universities include institutions in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, India and South Korea.

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