The Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has collaborated in promoting applied research in risk since 2012. One specific area of association has been research in risk analytics. The DST has established a Directed Risk Research Programme (DRRP) which channels funding via BMI to tertiary institutions to encourage research aimed to address the needs of the financial industry.
We would like to create awareness of this initiative and encourage industry in general and BMI alumni in particular to get involved. Not only would you have access to world class research and already published articles, but you will also have the opportunity to recommend new areas of research that could be funded by the DRRP.
Players in the financial industry are invited to identify areas within their businesses where there is a need for relevant research. All they are required to do is to set out their specific problem as a “one-pager” in a formal statement. The involvement of industry at the start of this process ensures that academic research remains relevant. In response to the problem statement, researchers at universities are invited to submit research proposals, for which they then receive some DST funding. Once the research is finalised researchers are encouraged to publish articles in reputable academic journals, which are then evaluated and further rewarded.
The DST has partnered with the Centre of Excellence in Financial Services (COEFS) to provide a portal for problem statements sourced from the financial sector, as well as a showcase for articles that resulted from industry problems. A list of existing problem statements and resultant research proposals and published articles is available here as an index table. The problem statements and published articles can also be obtained from the COEFS website (https://coefs.org.za/directed-risk-research-programme/).
If you have a problem statement that you believe could be of interest to the rest of the industry, we encourage you to make use of this initiative. There is a possibility that a problem statement on the same or a similar topic already exists. Alternatively, we invite new problem statements and a template is available on the Google Drive that is linked to the COEFS website (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1W0FVGDnuBf2htDvPGUwY5kJOrYQzSwcJ?usp=sharing). If you have any queries regarding the DRRP, you are welcome to contact Prof Phillip Mashele on Phillip.Mashele@nwu.ac.za at the Centre for BMI.
The DST and BMI will be hosting a DRRP conference in July 2018, to be held in Pretoria. The main objective of the conference will be to identify the requirements for industry which are aligned with directed risk research. The conference will also focus on the current technology developments and the direction of research as a result. Find the draft agenda for the upcoming conference on this page.