Quantact and IVADO sign an academic partnership to advance the finance and digital insurance sectors

Montréal, October 27, 2021 – Quantact, the Actuarial and Financial Mathematics Laboratory of the Centre de recherche mathématique (CRM), and the Institut de valorisation des données (IVADO) are announcing a strategic academic partnership to support research in artificial intelligence in the finance and the insurance sectors.

Strongly focused on innovation, the partnership between Quantact and IVADO will give impetus to knowledge mobilization efforts in digital finance and insurance through means including collaborative research projects led by experts in both organizations, scientific seminars and training workshops and significant support for emerging researchers and talent strategies.

Bringing together over 20 Québec researchers and some 100 students, Quantact is part of the Centre de recherche en mathématiques (CRM). Its research activities are focused on twelve areas in actuarial and financial mathematics, from machine learning to quantitative risk management, through non-life insurance mathematics and extreme risk modelling.

“Actuaries, quantitative risk managers and financial engineers rely on probability theory, statistics and computer science to model and quantify insurance and financial risks. They contribute to the development of financial and life and general insurance products, as well as insurance and financial coverage strategies. The rapid emergence of the financial and digital insurance sectors has led to a considerable influx of structured and unstructured data and to the appearance of a data science that is revolutionizing all sectors in which actuaries, quantitative risk managers and financial engineers work. Quantact members have already initiated partnerships with financial and insurance industry stakeholders to position Québec as a leader in finance and digital insurance research and practice. The partnership between Quantact and IVADO will help pool experts’ skills to contribute to the development of machine learning and data science in actuarial and financial mathematics,” explained Etienne Marceau, director of Quantact.

“The capacity of the finance and insurance sectors to build on the big data generated by digital markets is key to Québec’s future growth. Bringing Quantact into our network will help pool our efforts to move our advancements forward and highlight the synergy between our respective expertise,” affirmed Luc Vinet, CEO of IVADO.

The partnership formalizes several joint initiatives that are already underway, including projects with Fin-ML (or Machine Learning in Finance)—a Canadian reference in the acquisition of specialized skills in innovative machine learning in quantitative finance and business intelligence.

ABOUT QUANTACT

Founded in September 2014, the Actuarial and Financial Mathematics Laboratory Quantact is one of the 13 components of the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM). It is an interuniversity grouping of more than 20 professors specialized in actuarial and financial mathematics representing the following institutions: Concordia University, HEC Montréal, Université de Montréal, UQAM and Université Laval. The main objectives of Quantact are to: 1) encourage research in actuarial and financial mathematics; 2) contribute to the development of actuarial and financial mathematics and; 3) contribute to the training of highly qualified personnel. More info.

ABOUT IVADO

IVADO was born from an initiative of the Université de Montréal, HEC Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal in 2016. With the support of its academic, industrial and institutional ecosystem, IVADO develops cutting-edge expertise in the various fields of digital intelligence (including data science, artificial intelligence and operations research) and helps transform new scientific discoveries into concrete applications, economic opportunities and benefits for society.

Information

QUANTACT
Etienne Marceau, Chair
Full Professor
School of Actuarial Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Laval University
Etienne.Marceau@act.ulaval.ca

IVADO
Sandra Estrela
Communications Coordinator
sandra.estrela@ivado.ca