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Innovate Finance and a community of FinTech Academics – chaired by Alliance Manchester Business School – launch the UK FinTech Academic Network (UKFAN)
<ul>
<li>The network will focus on key areas of technology where the UK can continue building on its global leadership through innovative R&amp;D</li>
<li>UK FinTech Academic Network (UKFAN) will deliver closer engagement across academic communities and industry practitioners – namely finance professionals, entrepreneurs, regulators and policy makers </li>
<li>Network will tackle challenges in the UK’s financial services industry with research roadmaps, including around AI, open banking and green finance</li>
</ul>
London, 8th September 2022 – 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&amp;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: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Establish a multidisciplinary and self-sustaining inclusive FinTech research community in the UK.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Bridge existing gaps between the academic, industry, and regulatory communities and help unlock new partnerships and investment in research and innovation.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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.</li>
</ul>
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.
Professor Markos Zachariadis, from the Alliance Manchester Business School will be the founding chair of UKFAN.
Prof. Markos Zachariadis, professor at Alliance Manchester Business School and chair in Financial Technology (FinTech) &amp; Information Systems, said:
<blockquote>“We’re excited to be leading on this new initiative and partnering with Innovate Finance on the UK FinTech Academic Network, which will deliver important new research for the development of the UK’s thriving FinTech sector and serve to bridge academia and industry. 
“The UK is the second largest FinTech destination globally, and the industry is a critical economic driver for the economy. Now is the time to combine the efforts of our world-leading UK academic institutions and supercharge the growth of the UK FinTech sector by developing the next generation of transformative technologies – and we believe that UKFAN can help facilitate that.” </blockquote>
Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, said: 
<blockquote>“At Innovate Finance we recognize the key role academia can play in accelerating the development and growth of innovation across financial services. That is why we are proud to be working with Alliance Manchester Business School to launch the UK FinTech Academic Network, ensuring there is a coordinated effort that connects our world-leading, outstanding UK university sector with our world-leading, outstanding UK FinTech sector. 
We believe this initiative will help to move the agenda forward for financial innovation and will help further cement the UK as the top destination globally for FinTech.”</blockquote>
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.
ENDS
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Press inquiries
Seven Hills – <a href="mailto:innovatefinance@wearesevenhills.com">innovatefinance@wearesevenhills.com</a>
Notes to Editor
Additional information on the founding members of UKFAN:
Founding Chair:
Professor Markos Zachariadis (Director, Centre for Financial Technology Studies, Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), University of Manchester) is Professor of Financial Technologies (FinTech) and Information Systems and a GFC member of the World Economic Forum.
Founding Members:
Professor Raghavendra Rau (Director of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) is Professor of Finance and the Academic Director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). 
Professor Andrei Kirilenko (Director of the Cambridge Centre for Finance, Technology &amp; Regulation (CCFTR), Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) is Professor of Finance and the Founding Director of the Cambridge Centre for Finance, Technology &amp; Regulation (CCFTR). 
Professor Lukasz Szpruch (Programme Director for Finance and Economics, Alan Turing Institute) is Reader at the School of Mathematics, the University of Edinburgh, and the Programme Director for Finance and Economics at The Alan Turing Institute, the National Institute for Data Science and AI. 
Dr Jean-Philippe Vergne (UCL School of Management, University College London) is Associate Professor in Strategy where he focuses on the applications of blockchain and how it can decentralise organisations. 
Professor Philip Treleaven (Department of Computer Science, University College London) is Professor of Computing and Director of the Financial Computing Centre a Government-funded UK PhD Centre in Financial Computing (a collaboration of UCL, LSE, LBS and the leading financial institutions).
Dr Jiahua Xu (Centre for Blockchain Technologies, University College London) is Assistant Professor in Financial Computing at UCL, where she lectures on Blockchain Technologies and Machine Learning in Finance. 
Professor Crawford Spence (Co-Director of the FinWork Futures Research Centre, King's College London) is Professor of Accounting with broader interests in economic sociology.
Professor Alex Preda (Co-Director, FinWork Futures Research Centre, King's College London) Professor of Professions, Markets and Technology with principal research interest in global financial markets and financial professions.
Dr. Ying-Ying Hsieh (Associate Director, Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering at Imperial College London) is Assistant Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship researching blockchain-based decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs).
Professor Pinar Ozcan (Director of the Oxford Future of Finance and Technology (Fintech) Initiative, Said Business School, University of Oxford) is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation specialising in entrepreneurship and strategy in technology markets.
Dr Nir Vulkan (Said Business School, University of Oxford) is Associate Professor of Business Economics with interest in FinTech, e-commerce and market design.
Professor Alistair Milne (Chair in Loughborough School of Business and Economics) is Professor of Financial Economics focusing on bank capital; financial regulation; financial risk management; financial stability; central banking; payments and systems of payments.
Professor Christopher Holland (Chair in Loughborough School of Business and Economics) is Professor of Information Management focusing on digital strategy, business models, and technology implementation in insurance and financial services.
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli (Gresham College) is Honorary Life Fellow of Gresham College and Emeritus Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Commerce at Gresham College, Fellow of King’s College London, and Visiting Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School, as well as Chairman of Z/Yen Group (publishers of the Global Financial Centres Index), FS Club, and the Esop Centre.
Professor Yuval Millo (Warwick Business School) is Professor of Accounting at Warwick Business School specializing in the field of social studies of finance (SSF) and the sociology of financial markets. His current research focuses on measuring climate risk in pension funds and dynamics of passive investing.
Dr Nikiforos Panourgias (School of Business &amp; Management, Queen Mary University of London) is Professor of Financial Markets Information Systems at Queen Mary University of London.
Dr Carsten Sørensen (Department of Management, The London School of Economics and Political Science) is Reader (Associate Professor) in Digital Innovation particularly studying digital platforms and rights-based digital infrastructures. He is a Hedera council member.
Dr Edgar Whitley (Department of Management, The London School of Economics and Political Science) is Associate Professor (Reader) in Information Systems.  He is a member of the Open Banking Data Expert Panel, co-chair of the Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group and Review Board member for two Digital Economy Act Data Sharing Review Boards.
Professor Muttukrishnan (Raj) Rajarajan (Department of Engineering at the School of Science &amp; Technology, City University of London) is Professor of Security Engineering and Director of the Institute for Cyber Security at the City University of London.
Professor Johannes Muhle-Karbe (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London) is Head of Mathematical Finance, Chair in Mathematical Finance and Director of the CFM-Imperial Institute of Quantitative Finance.
Dr Jack Jacquier (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London) is Reader in Mathematical Finance and his research interests are in Probability and Mathematical Finance. He is Director of the MSc in Mathematics and Finance, Imperial College London.
About Innovate Finance 
Innovate Finance is the independent industry body that represents and advances the global FinTech community in the UK. Its mission is to accelerate the UK's leading role in the financial services sector by directly supporting the next generation of technology-led innovators. Innovate Finance's membership ranges from seed stage startups and global financial institutions to investors, professional services firms, and global FinTech hubs. 
All benefit from Innovate Finance's unique position as the single point of access to promote enabling policy and regulation, talent and skills, business opportunity and growth, and investment capital. By bringing together and connecting the most forward-thinking participants in financial services, Innovate Finance is helping create a global financial services sector that is more transparent, more sustainable and more inclusive.
<a href="http://www.innovatefinance.com">www.innovatefinance.com</a> 
About Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS)  
Established in 1965 and part of The University of Manchester, Alliance MBS is one of the UK’s largest campus-based business schools. It has a long tradition of global business education with centres in Manchester, Dubai, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.  
Alliance MBS is one of few institutions to have achieved triple accreditation from AACSB International, AMBA and EQUIS, and the Financial Times ranks its MBA 36th globally (2020).  
The School provides world-class, industry-focused education to undergraduates, postgraduates and executives across the globe. 
As a research-led school our experts tackle contemporary business and management problems across for main areas: accounting and finance; innovation, management and policy; people management and organisations; and management sciences and marketing.  
<a href="http://www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk">www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk</a> 
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