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Sessional Research Programme and knowledge exchange

The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' (IFoA's) Sessional Research Programme is a high quality forum that disseminates research and promotes involvement and discussion from members and other stakeholders

Our Sessional Research Programme provides our members and other stakeholders the opportunity to present and discuss research which advances actuarial science and complements the objectives of the IFoA. If you have an idea for a sessional meeting or would like to present your research please read Guidance for researchers.

Knowledge exchange

Our Sessional Research Programme also includes seminar series and our Spring and Autumn Lectures. The IFoA works with members and other stakeholders to identify and raise awareness of forthcoming policy issues that are relevant to actuaries and the IFoA and of public interest. Seminars which cover such issues may be included in the programme.

Our Spring and Autumn Lectures provide the opportunity to hear from a diverse range of eminent speakers on current subjects of public interest. The broad range of topics covered reflects our aim to nurture thought leadership and knowledge exchange.

Sessional Research Programme 2018/2019

Antibiotic Resistance Working Party

Sessional Research Meeting, 25 February 2019

The Genomic Underpinnings of Human Lifespan: Biology, Diseases and Prediction

Sessional Research Meeting, 21 January 2019

Sessional Research Programme 2017/2018

Contact Details

If you have any questions or wish to discuss any aspect of our funding for member-led research please contact the Research and Knowledge Team:

arc@actuaries.org.uk

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Start date
E.g., 04/07/2020
End date
E.g., 04/07/2020

Events calendar

  • TIGI 2020 (Technical Issues in General Insurance)

    Webinar Series
    22 June 2020 - 7 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Technical Issues in General Insurance provides content across all key areas of the general insurance sector whilst also offering cross-practice area technical topic deep-dives.

  • TIGI Webinar - Best Practices for Developing and Deploying Web-Based Pricing Tools

    Webinar
    6 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Technical Issues in General Insurance

    Across the General Insurance market actuarial pricing tools are being migrated from Excel to web-based technologies. Web based pricing technology offers many synergies with AI and Machine Learning. But they are often hampered by poor design and practically always perform worse than their Excel counterparts!

    The following will be presented: 

  • The New Normal – The Human Factor – Increased Risk?

    Webinar
    6 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Offering insight on the 'New Normal', this webinar shares how the arsenal of weaponry at the disposal of ethical hackers is being deployed by those intent on breaching organisational security. The webinar is for all employees that would like a cyber context of what defines the “New Normal” and how it exposes an organisation.

  • Finance and Investment Webinar: Implementing ESG principles within Real Asset Investment Decisions

    Webinar
    7 July 2020

    Spaces available

    In this talk we cover the practicalities of implementing ESG within real asset investment decisions. Capital deployed in real assets is invested for a long term and has far reaching impact on the environment and society.  However, implementing ESG into real asset investment decisions is not straightforward and requires a different approach to public market assets.

  • Pensions Conference Webinar: Integrated Risk Management- Pensions Risky Business

    Webinar
    8 July 2020

    Spaces available

    A practical and theoretical look at risk from wider perspectives, drawing on theories and examples from other fields, as well as social experiments, the session aims to stimulate members to consider information asymmetry, bias, Bayesian methods, behavioural finance and behavioural psychology when determining pension scheme risk. 

  • PHC Conference webinar: Building a Shiny Death Toolbox

    Webinar
    8 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series

    This webinar will provide an overview of how and why we built a Death Toolbox using Shiny.  This includes a live demonstration of the tool that enables a user to explore mortality datasets without knowing specialist coding techniques.

  • TIGI Webinar - Lloyd’s Casualty Market Study

    Webinar
    8 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Technical Issues in General Insurance webinar series. Lloyd’s will be presenting on the recent Casualty Market Study that was conducted across a section of the market. This study looked at the Non-Marine General Liability, Directors & Officers and Medical Malpractice from an underwriting, reserving and claims perspective. The presentation will cover the reasons for why the Study was conducted, the approach taken to determine the focus classes and participants, the key general findings as well as the next steps that Lloyd’s are proposing to take.

  • Pensions Conference Webinar: Longevity – CMI update

    Webinar
    9 July 2020

    Spaces available

    An update from the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI). Content will focus on the work of the Self-administered Pensions Schemes (SAPS) Mortality Committee and the Mortality Projections Committee and will cover the most relevant and up-to-date outputs.

  • Pensions Conference Webinar: The state of the PPF Universe

    Webinar
    9 July 2020

    Spaces available

    The PPF’s Purple Book provides the most comprehensive data on the UK universe of Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes in the private sector.  Analysing how this landscape has changed over time shows that whilst the risk profile of DB schemes has reduced underfunding has persisted.  The session will explore these trends and provide an insight into how funding may evolve in the future under a number of our modelled scenarios.   

  • Webinar: Challenges of Including Illiquid assets in DC Pension Funds

    Webinar
    9 July 2020

    Spaces available

    The IFoA is running a webinar on Thursday 9 July 2020 which will focus on the challenges and issues facing defined contribution savers who wish to access illiquid investments.

    Our speakers will provide perspectives from their diverse experience, including DC fund implementation, platforms, master trusts, the role of trustees, regulation, and parallels with other fund types. They will then come together in a panel discussion with audience interaction. 

    The webinar is likely to be of interest to actuaries working across the spectrum of financial services, including investment advisers, asset managers, insurers, fund platforms and DC master trusts.

  • AI: A red eyed terminator or an actuary's best friend?

    Webinar
    10 July 2020

    Spaces available

    An online webinar delivered by John Taylor, immediate past-President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries who will look at the prospects for the actuarial profession in the era of unprecedented technological innovation.

  • IEMA and IFoA Webinar – Climate Risk and Financial Disclosures: Guidance on TCFD for professionals

    Webinar
    10 July 2020

    Spaces available

    In this webinar you will hear first-hand from two lead authors; Louise Pryor - President Elect of the IFoA, Chair of the London Climate Change Partnership and Non-Executive Director of the Ecology Building Society. Paul Pritchard – Former IEMA Board Member with a focus on financial services and value chains. Paul also served as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. This webinar will provide key insights for all professionals interested in understanding and engaging with climate related financial disclosures.

  • Finance on Trial: Climate Liability Risk and the coming Wave of Legal Challenges

    Webinar
    13 July 2020

    Spaces available

    This webinar is intended to raise awareness of the shifting landscape of climate liability risk and what it means for actuaries, including how it impacts on their professional and legal duties. Presentations will cover the legal risks around climate change for investment consultants and actuaries advising DB pension schemes as well as consideration of climate risk for insurers.

  • Finance and Investment Webinar: Incorporating Climate Change in Analytical Tools

    Webinar
    14 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Climate change risks are likely to become material for many risk management and investment decisions. This will require to incorporate explicitly climate change in the tools used for risk management and investment decisions. At present existing climate change tools are often too crude for decision making.

  • Current Issues in Life Assurance (CILA) Webinar series

    Webinar Series
    15 July 2020 - 3 August 2020

    Spaces available

    CILA is one of the pre-eminent events in the annual 'Life' calendar. Due to COVID-19 we are running the programme as a series of webinars covering topics aimed at practicing life actuaries from life offices, consulting firms and other employers of actuaries and those who work in or advise on, the life assurance market in the UK and Europe.

  • CILA Webinar - Growing Pains: Taking the Strain

    Webinar
    15 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Current Issues in Life Assurance

    For annuity writers, a key challenge is the need to fund capital-consumptive new business strain (NBS) as a consequence of writing the business intended to fund future distributions.

    Reinsurance, investment strategy and capital provision all have roles to play. Here, we:

  • CILA Webinar - 2020 Mortality Developments Across the Profession

    Webinar
    16 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Current Issues in Life Assurance

    Mortality in 2020 is now dominated by one thing, although – in our future-focused world – the pandemic is just one of many mortality considerations.  In this session, three well-regarded mortality/longevity specialists provide an overview of:

  • Webinar - Panel discussion: How banks are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic

    Webinar
    16 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Because of Covid-19, forecasters predict a severe recession in 2020, followed by a V or U-shaped recovery. This impacts both individuals and companies. However, compared to previous recessions, the impact on banks of higher credit losses should be mitigated to some extent by government actions. 

  • PHC Conference webinar: Impactability Modelling for Population Health Management

    Webinar
    20 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series

    This session will provide an overview of the Population Health Management Working Party's research including defining impactability and impactability modelling, discussing some examples of specific modelling approaches, considering the practical challenges across the NHS as well as wider public perception and ethical issues.

  • Finance and Investment Webinar: A Career in Finance and Investment

    Webinar
    21 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Many actuaries consider career opportunities in the Finance and Investment practice area after having started off in more traditional actuarial roles such as valuations, capital management or pricing. This session is aimed at helping actuaries to better understand roles in Finance and Investment and how they can fine tune their skills to pursue such careers.

  • Mortality and Longevity Webinar Series 2020

    Webinar Series
    22 July 2020 - 10 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Due to COVID-19, we are running this programme via a series of webinars commencing 22nd July.

    This webinar series will provide topical and practical updates and discussion on the latest thinking and innovations in mortality and longevity, and is designed to be very accessible to a broad range of experience.

     

  • Mortality and Longevity Webinar: Towards Precision Insurance: dynamic hazards modelling in Big Data

    Webinar
    23 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Predictive risk assessment and risk stratification models based on postcode-level consumer classification are widely used for life insurance underwriting. However, these are socio-economic models not directly related to health information. Similar to precision medicine, precision life insurance should aim to tailor policy pricing/reserving to the individual health characteristics of each client.

  • Finance and Investment Webinar: ESG forays into fixed income

    Webinar
    28 July 2020

    Spaces available

    This webinar has been re-scheduled from its original date of the 1st July. Although ESG has many buyers across the asset allocation community, from pension funds to sovereign wealth funds, it still hasn’t found its place within the core asset management strategy desks where the money is actually invested. The problem as well as the opportunity is Fixed Income. Plenty of strategies exist for incorporating ESG within Equities, from screening, integration to a combination. ESG has picked up relatively quickly within Equities with rating,indices created using ESG factors. This talk will discuss how we price a quantifiable ESG credit risk premium and make it alpha worthy in a strategy. 

  • PHC Conference webinar: Dementia and insurance: cognitive protection

    Webinar
    28 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series

    With the rising prevalence of dementia, how can we manage this risk effectively and can insurance do more? Matt Singleton, Ageing Lead at Swiss Re, will cover these topics and demonstrate how insurance could help people address their concerns.

  • CILA Webinar - The Capital Management Toolkit

    Webinar
    29 July 2020

    Spaces available

    Current Issues in Life Assurance

    This talk will look at a range of such techniques (e.g. mass lapse risk transfer, contract boundaries, risk margin relief, non-standard longevity risk transfer) that have been applied or considered by UK and EU insurers, and the pros and cons of each.

     

  • CILA Webinar - Global Capital Standards – What does the Adoption of ICS v2.0 Mean?

    Webinar
    3 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Current Issues in Life Assurance.

    The International Association of Insurance Supervisors announced on 14 November 2019 the adoption of v2.0 of the global Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) which will undergo confidential reporting for 5 years starting from 2020. This session will include specific experiences from Legal and General (L&G) as well as global industry perspectives from EY.

  • CILA Webinar - Developing and Executing a Climate Risk Strategy

    Webinar
    3 August 2020 - 4 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Current Issues in Life Assurance

    This session will cover the PRA supervisory statement on financial impacts related to climate change, industry insights into PRA climate risk business plans, examples climate risk strategy setting out key workstreams and activity steps for successful execution, an overview of a climate risk strategy execution timeline and the future.     

  • PHC Conference webinar: Engagement and innovation for the next generation consumer

    Webinar
    5 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. Using new and unique research and data from the UK, US, Sweden and China, this presentation investigates how consumers use the internet through their insurance journey and analyzes the role culture and generation plays in their online behaviour. We use this research to show the online landscape for insurance sales in the UK and suggest ways to shape new products and effectively engage with the consumer who is buying them.

  • PHC Conference webinar: Gene Modification

    Webinar
    6 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Gen Re Life/Health Research and Development, Dr John O'Brien, will discuss the impacts of Gene Modification for life/health insurance. 

  • Mortality and Longevity Webinar: Beyond control - what could be our next big health threat?

    Webinar
    10 August 2020

    Spaces available

    As an industry, it has been important to be able to look to the future to identify the next quantifiable risk. In this session, I will explore some of the less tangible, but none-the-less concerning risks to future health, such as the health risks associated with exposure to pesticides, ingestion of plastic in the food chain, and the hazards of indoor air pollution through exposure to volatile organic compounds.

  • Mortality and Longevity Webinar: The IFoA diabetes working party - our journey so far

    Webinar
    10 August 2020

    Spaces available

    The working party will help the industry to update and enhance how potential risk from diabetes and excess mortality is considered, including the need to understand the underwriting implications as treatments improve, and potentially to develop new products that are tailored to those with diabetes.

  • PHC Conference webinar: Cancer morbidity risk modelling – regional variation over time

    Webinar
    12 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. Modelling the structure and trends of cancer morbidity risk is important for pricing and reserving in related health insurance fields such as critical illness insurance and care provision. We model the dynamics of cancer incidence over time in different regions in England, using 1981-2016 ONS data. The modelling allows estimation of cancer rates at various age, year, gender and region levels, following a Bayesian setting to account for statistical uncertainty. Our analysis indicates significant regional variation in cancer incidence rates. 

  • PHC Conference webinar: Learnings from our first climate-change related disclosures (TCFD)

    Webinar
    13 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. In this talk we will outline the steps Aviva took in pulling together our first large-scale disclosures on the exposure of our business to climate change published in March 2019; in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. After touching on why insurers have such an important role in climate change, we'll cover a brief “how-to” guide for those who have not yet embarked on thinking about these topics before giving a case study of how the learnings from a TCFD disclosure exercise can be applied to investment portfolios.

  • PHC Conference webinar: Can we manage Diabetes risk for healthier outcomes

    Webinar
    17 August 2020

    Spaces available

    Part of the Protection, Health and Care Conference 2020 webinar series. 

    The insurance industry currently underwrites customers with diabetes based on a range of factors, medical expertise and various medical studies. The work undertaken by the Diabetes Working Party would help the industry to approach this using current research findings to update and enhance how potential risk from diabetes is considered. This includes the need to understand the underwriting implications as treatments improve, and potentially to develop new products that are tailored to those with diabetes. This webinar will present our latest findings in the management of this important chronic condition which will include research in collaboration with the ARC.