Blockchain technology for the management of food sciences researches

Background: The management of scientific research projects, working on scale and involving geographically distant groups, uses frequently technological means that can loss information and access non-standardized or outdated data. The records complexity can make impossible to apply the project management discipline in a broad and efficient way. Scope and approach: Researches involving products of vegetable origin demand collaborative studies with transparency and information traceability, increasing confidence in results. To address these issues, a solution for mapping the effectiveness of research management have been designed using blockchain technology, a decentralized solution aiming to the safety improvement, waste reduction and traceability of the scientific results along the process. Key findings and conclusions: The use of blockchain technology allows the creation of decentralized storage location for all information, according to personalized information and safe access permissions. Smart contracts were used to define research protocols for subsequent data collection, automatic processing and analysis, assuring that protocols were respected throughout the search chain and mapping the process efficiency. Blockchain can support the scientific research chain, specifically in this case for management of the functional foods research. The proposed architecture can be replicated for any type of research with the benefits of the technology present. In this way, data search through blockchain can be done, providing tools to the different network research groups to make validations and contributes to the traceability, safety and reliability of results.