The UK’s University of Oxford and Man Group have announced the creation of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance, which they intend to become the world’s leading interdisciplinary academic institute for research in quantitative finance, with an emphasis on alternative investments.Man Group will provide core funding, with an initial commitment of £13.75m over the first five years, including £3.3m for an endowed chair, the Man professor of quantitative finance.
In addition to its financial contribution, Man Group will house its own research laboratory in the institute building, with the intention of bringing together Man Group’s researchers and the academic community.
“The Institute is intended to be truly international in scope through building links with the international academic community,” said Man Group quantitative programme AHL’s head of algorithmic trading research Tim Hoggard, who co-ordinated Man’s efforts to establish the Institute.
The institute will be based in Oxford and will initially have ten full-time researchers and staff, with a further ten senior part-time faculty members. “The Institute will be truly interdisciplinary across the university, and will include researchers from many of the university’s schools and departments,” said economics professor and the institute’s research director, Neil Shephard.
“The Institute’s researchers will study problems varying from the economic sources of out-performance of hedge funds to how to statistically analyse vast quantities of streaming data relevant to the characterisation of risk,” added Keith Burnett, head of the university's mathematical, physical and life sciences division.
The institute will organise the Oxford-Man Distinguished Lecture, major conferences and workshops. Each week during term time it will run an institute seminar.
