Innovate Finance, the industry body representing UK FinTech, and a community of leading FinTech academics from top UK Universities chaired by Alliance Manchester Business School, have launched the UK FinTech Academic Network (UKFAN).
UKFAN will drive innovative R&D in key areas of technology where the UK can continue building on its global FinTech leadership.
The network will focus on three core objectives:
- Establish a multidisciplinary and self-sustaining inclusive FinTech research community in the UK.
- Bridge existing gaps between the academic, industry, and regulatory communities and help unlock new partnerships and investment in research and innovation.
- Develop cohesive research roadmaps and future research agendas to tackle real challenges in UK financial services and the FinTech space to inform policy and practice.
To achieve its vision, UKFAN will bring together researchers across all relevant academic disciplines such as finance, economics, information systems, strategy, mathematics, entrepreneurship, computer science, and humanities to contribute to the current dialogue around FinTech in industry and the public sector. The UKFAN’s annual conference is envisioned to be the UK’s flagship academic event on FinTech research.
The key areas and technologies of interest that the network will initially focus on include AI, open banking, payments, blockchain, regulation and green finance.
Building on the connectivity of the consortium across the UK FinTech landscape, and tried and tested approaches in the centres and the universities represented, UKFAN will be a ‘network of networks’, developing productive and mutually supportive relationships with connected networks and organisations.
UKFAN will enjoy participation from many academics and scholars representing major universities with FinTech research capabilities. The founding members include Professors, FinTech Centre Directors and Program Directors from leading universities and research institutions in the UK. These include the University of Manchester, University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Edinburgh, Alan Turing Institute, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University of Warwick, Loughborough University, London School of Economics, Queen Mary University of London, Gresham College and City, University of London. Innovate Finance will act as the secretariat and will help with the coordination of the UKFAN annual event during UK FinTech Week.