The Foundation for Science is part of the Group’s long-term commitment to risk research and the dissemination of risk-related knowledge
Created in 2011, the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science forms part of the SCOR group's long-term commitment to research and the dissemination of risk-related knowledge. This commitment is an integral part of SCOR’s DNA, as illustrated by the Group’s tagline, “The Art & Science of Risk”. Risk is, in effect, the “raw material” of reinsurance, and SCOR aims to be at the cutting edge of risk expertise and research thanks to its vast network of academic institutions and the support it gives to numerous disciplines, including mathematics, actuarial science, physics, chemistry, geophysics, climatology, economics, finance, and more.
The creation of the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science, with a pledge of EUR 7.5 million over 5 years, marked a new phase in SCOR’s commitment to scientific disciplines, and beyond this to its contribution to Society, in line with its policy of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Areas and modes of intervention
As its name indicates, the objective of the Foundation is to support scientific research. Thus the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science may lend its support to different kinds of risk and (re)insurance-related projects, including university chairs, research projects, conferences and publications within the framework of its orientations and means.
The Foundation also supports multiyear research and technical cooperation programs. These projects involve a broad range of disciplines and address meaningful topics for society, such as:
- risk markets and value creation, through research chairs at the Toulouse School of Economics and the Risk Foundation
- modelling life expectancy at older ages
- analyzing the feasibility of earthquake forecasting
- understanding the risk management behavior of North-American Non-Life insurance companies
- facilitating research into Alzheimer’s disease
Since its early days, the Foundation has financed seminars on numerous scientific topics, such as:
- economy of risks and insurance (EGRIE)
- emerging infectious diseases
- Alzheimer's disease
- longevity risk
- anticipation in an economic and financial crisis context
- climate risk anticipation and insurability
- risk globalization
To foster scientific vocations, the Foundation also sponsors scientific awards, such as the 2017 Europlace Institute of Finance Award for Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance, and the SCOR Foundation Young European Researcher Prize for Research into Alzheimer’s disease. In partnership with the Institut des Actuaires, the Foundation sponsors the SCOR Actuarial Awards in France.
Learn more about the Actuarial Awards.
The SCOR Corporate Foundation wishes to contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to training in the disciplines concerned. Thus, promotional or financing initiatives may be envisaged with regard to teaching and courses, along with financial support for students already studying or intending to study in these fields. In this context, the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science develops actuarial sciences in Africa through an educational program.
Here are some examples of projects funded by the Foundation
Global Earthquake Forecasting System
The overall objective of the Global Earthquake Forecast System is to provide a reliable, rigorously tested platform to issue earthquake predictions within the few days or weeks before a large event strikes a vulnerable area.
Modelling and forecasting mortality
This thesis, written by Marius D. Pascariu and financed by the Foundation, highlights new and innovative methods for estimating and projecting future mortality levels among humans.
Alzheimer’s disease: Making a difference through ten years of partnership and research
World Alzheimer’s Day marks a longstanding partnership between the SCOR Foundation and France's Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation to seek advances in the treatment, early diagnosis and prevention of this debilitating condition.
SCOR-MNHN Chair in Biodiversity and (Re)Insurance
The chair aims to assess the current diversity situation and to study the current and potential interactions between biodiversity and (re)insurance, particularly in terms of damage caused and constraints to be imposed.
- Presentation: Biodiversity and the Re/Insurance Industry: from Uncertainty to Risk
SCOR-PSE Chair on Macroeconomic Risk
- Newsletter #2 - June 2019
- Newsletter #1 - December 2018
TSE SCOR International conference on “New Challenges in Insurance”, Paris, 5-6 September, 2019
- Program
- News - "The SCOR Foundation and the SCOR–Toulouse School of Economics Chair on Risk co-organize an international conference on the new challenges in insurance"
TSE SCOR Workshop on Longevity and Dependence, Paris, 30 November, 2018
- Program
- Monitoring Long-Term Care - Mohamed Baccouche
- Long-term care policies with nonlinear strategic bequests - Chiara Canta and Helmuth Cremer
- Health capital norms and intergenerational transmission of non-communicable chronic diseases - Catarina Goulão and Agustín Pérez-Barahona
- Insurance and Imperfect Competition in LTC market - Helmuth Cremer and Jean-Marie Lozachmeur
- Recent Changes in Longevity and their Implications for the Insurance Sector - Daria Ossipova
- Some Thoughts on the LTC Insurance Puzzle - Pierre Pestieau
SCOR Corporate Foundation
5, avenue Kléber
75795 Paris Cedex 16
fondation@scor.com
Governance and structure
The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science, of which the Group is the sole founder, is governed by a Board of Directors, chaired by André Lévy-Lang. The Board of Directors decides how the Corporate Foundation’s resources are used, defines its orientations with the assistance of the Scientific Board, and ensures that the Foundation is functioning properly.
Each year, the Foundation undergoes a legal audit by statutory auditors appointed by the Board of Directors.
The Scientific Board of the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science, which is composed of recognized scientists from various disciplines, is responsible for directing the Foundation towards suitable areas of intervention from the main projects submitted for consideration, in line with its long-term strategy.
The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science is run on a day-to-day basis by a management team that passes the projects presented for consideration on to the Board of Directors and/or the Scientific Board, implements any decisions made by them and keeps them informed of progress with regard to projects already underway.
André Lévy-Lang, a French citizen and former student of the Ecole Polytechnique (1956), holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Stanford. He began his career in 1960 as a physicist at the French Atomic Energy Commission. From 1962 to 1974 he held various different technical and managerial positions at the Schlumberger group, both in France and the United States. He joined the Paribas group in 1974 and in 1982 was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Compagnie Bancaire, a specialised financing subsidiary of Paribas, before becoming Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Paribas group in 1990. He held these positions until the merger with BNP in 1999. André Lévy Lang is an associate professor emeritus at the University of Paris-Dauphine, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Les Echos, Chairman of both the Risk Foundation and the Louis Bachelier Institute, Vice-Chairman of the Europlace Finance Institute and Vice-Chairman of the French Institute for International Relations. He is also a member of the boards of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques and the American Hospital in Paris.
Jean-Luc Besson is an actuary and holds a PhD in Mathematics. He has served as a Professor of Mathematics at the University level, then as Director of Research, Statistics and Information Systems at the FFSA. He was appointed Chief Reserving Actuary of the Group in January 2003 and was Chief Risk Officer from July 2004 to June 2010.
Bruno Latourrette, a French citizen, is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE), and holds a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics. Bruno Latourrette began his career at SCOR Global Life in 1996, in charge of actuarial studies. He was subsequently Chief Actuary at SCOR's Dallas subsidiary between 2001 and 2004, before becoming Senior Actuary at the Paris office in 2004. He was appointed head of Legal & General's actuarial department in France in 2005, before becoming Chief Actuary of SCOR Global Life in April 2008. Bruno Latourrette is a member of the French and American Societies of Actuaries.
Paul Nunn, a British citizen, graduated from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne with honors in Mathematics and Economics. He joined SCOR in 2011 as Head of Catastrophe Risk Modelling at SCOR Global P&C; responsible for the assessment and management of natural hazard risk globally. A key aspect of the role is the provision of analytics and data for internal and external stakeholders including SCORs internal capital model, rating agencies, regulators and retrocessionaires. Before joining SCOR Global P&C, Paul was Head of Exposure Management at Lloyd’s and has also worked at catastrophe modelling specialist firm, AIR Worldwide Ltd. In addition to his role in the management team of SCOR's P&C division, he is a director of the non-profit Oasis Loss Modelling Framework company.
Philippe Trainar, a French citizen, is a former student of the Ecole nationale d’administration and has a BA in Economics. He held various positions in the French civil service from 1981 to 1999, notably as financial attaché to the French embassy in Germany (1985-1987), adviser in the Prime Minister’s cabinet (1993-1995) and deputy-director in charge of international economic issues at the French Ministry of Finance. He was also in charge of macroeconomic modelling at the Ministry of Finance. In 2000 he joined the Fédération française des sociétés d’assurances (FFSA) as Director of Economic, Financial and International affairs. In February 2006, he was appointed Chief Economist of the SCOR group. Philippe Trainar is Chairman of the Risk Analysis and Management Commission of the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA). He is a member of the National Economic Commission. Philippe Trainar has also written many scientific works on the economy, risk, insurance and solvency, which have been published in scientific journals such as the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Geneva Papers and Economie & Statistique and Risques. He is also editor-in-chief of the Revue Française d’Economie.
Laurent Abel is Director of Research at INSERM. He received his M.D. from the University of Paris Descartes in 1988 and his Ph.D. in genetic epidemiology from the University of Paris Sud in 1993. In 2000, he co-founded with Jean-Laurent Casanova the Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases (University Paris Descartes/INSERM Unit 980) at the Necker Medical School, and has been co-directed it with him since then (http://www.hgid.net). He is studying the human genetics of infectious diseases, with the goal of identifying the main human susceptibility/resistance genes controlling the response to infection by various microbes (in particular, mycobacteria and oncogenic viruses), and the development of the associated infectious diseases. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals since 1986. He is the recipient of the 1999 André Lwoff prize from the Pasteur-Weizmann council and the French Academy of Sciences, and of the 2009 Jean Valade prize from the Foundation of France and the French Academy of Medicine. In 2009, he was appointed as a visiting professor at The Rockefeller University of New York. In 2011, he was awarded an ERC-Advanced grant.
Physicist, Member of the Institut de France.
Born on 7 November 1951 in Lyon.
Education: Ecole normale supérieure (rue d’Ulm), Université de Paris VI.
Academic qualifications: Agrégation and PhD in Physical Science, Doctor of Science.
Career:
- Jane Eliza Procter Fellow (1974) and European Space Agency International Fellow (1975) at the University of Princeton (United States)
- Research Analyst (1977), Officer (1981), and Director (1985) at the French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS)
- Deputy Director of the Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology department of the CNRS and the Paris Observatory (1986)
- Tenured professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) (since 1989)
- Member of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation, the French Physics Society, Corresponding Member (1994) and Member (since 2000) of the Institut de France (Académie des sciences), Member of the Academia Europaea (2010).
- Work: Introduction of new concepts to the physics of black holes, exhaustive theoretical study of the problem of two condensed gravitational bodies (in general relativity), fine tuning the theory of the emission of gravitational waves, introduction of new relativistic gravitation tests scanning the intense gravitational field system, study of scalar-tensor theories of gravitation and primordial cosmology.
Publications: Entretiens sur la multitude du monde (joint author, 2002), Si Einstein m'était conté (2005).
Decorations: Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.
Awards: Laureate of the Singer-Polignacrix Foundation (1978), CNRS Bronze medal (1980), Paul Langevin award from the French Physics Society (1984), Mergier-Bourdeix prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1990), Einstein Medal from the Bern Einstein Society (1996), Cecil F. Powell Memorial Medal from the European Physical Society (2005), Amaldi Medal from the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation (2010).
Georges Dionne holds the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management and is member of the board of HEC Montréal, Canada.
He is President of the Canadian Economics Association and first vice-president of the European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists (EGRIE). Georges' awards include the Les Échos (2001) and Kulp-Wright awards (2002) for his book Handbook of Insurance, the PRMIA award (2006), the Bank of Canada NFA Conference award (2006), an Honorary PhD conferred by the Université d’Orléans, France (2006), the Innis-Gérin Medal from the Royal Society of Canada (2011), and the Marcel-Dagenais award (1991, 2012).
Georges has published extensively, including editing five books and more than 150 articles peer-reviewed. He was the Editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance from January 2007 to December 2012.
One of his main achievements was to propose (with Marcel Boyer) a new model for automobile insurance pricing based on drivers’ demerit points. This model was implemented by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec in 1992 and is still used in Quebec.
Pierre-Louis Lions, a French mathematician, has worked extensively on partial differential equations and their applications. He received the Fields Medal in 1994 when he was teaching at the Paris-Dauphine University. Amongst his other work, Pierre-Louis Lions was the first mathematician to give a complete solution to the Boltzmann equation and introduced, in conjunction with Michael Crandall, the notion of viscosity solutions, which have multiple applications. Over the past few years, in collaboration with Jean-Michel Lasry, Pierre-Louis Lions has introduced and developed mean field game theory and its applications, notably to economics and finance. Pierre-Louis Lions has received several awards, including the IBM prize in 1987, the Ampère prize from the Paris Academy of Science in 1992 and the Grand Prize INRIA in 2012. He is a doctor honoris causa of Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh), of the City University of Hong-Kong, of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne and of the University of Bucharest. He is currently a professor at the prestigious Collège de France, where he holds the chair in Partial Differential Equations and their applications, as well as teaching applied mathematics at the École Polytechnique.
Directeur de Recherche CNRS
Citizenship: Russian
Research Interests
Theoretical, computational and observational seismology; seismic tomography; seismic wave propagation in heterogeneous media; random seismic wavefields; seismic surface waves; structure of the Earth’s interior; interpretation of seismic tomographic models; regional seismic phases; CTBT monitoring; seismic source; site effects; application of numerical modeling.
Didier Sornette uses rigorous data-driven mathematical statistical analysis combined with nonlinear multi-variable dynamical models including positive and negative feedbacks to study the predictability and control of crises and extreme events in complex systems, with applications to financial bubbles and crashes, earthquake physics and geophysics, the dynamics of success on social networks and the complex system approach to medicine (immune system, epilepsy...) towards the diagnostic of systemic instabilities. He is the author of 500+ research papers and 7 books (h-index 49 (ISI) and 67 (scHolar)).
He holds Honorary Doctorate degrees from the Free University in Brussels (1989), the London Business School (2007), HEC Montreal (2007), the University of Mannheim (2011), the Athens School of Business and Economics (2012) and the University of Rome 2 (2012). Among other prizes and honors, he received the Yrjö Jahnsson prize of the European Economic Association (granted every other year to an economist under the age of 45 who has made a contribution in theoretical and applied research that is significant to economics in Europe) in 1993, the gold medal of the CNRS in 2007 (the second economist, after Allais in 1978, to receive this medal, attributed to one researcher every year since 1954), and was the inaugural winner of the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in economics, finance and management in 2008. In 2010 he received the CME-MSRI award and the Levi-Strauss prize. He is a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993) and of the American Economic Association (1993). He was elected to Allais’ chair at the French Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 2011.
Jean Tirole has given over seventy distinguished lectures and has published about two hundred articles in economics and finance, as well as 11 books. He received his PhD in economics from MIT in 1981, engineering degrees from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris (1976) and from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris (1978) and a “Doctorat de 3ème cycle” in decision mathematics from the University Paris IX (1978).
James W. Vaupel is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, which he founded in 1996. He is also Professor of Demography and Epidemiology at the Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, and Research Professor at Duke University’s Population Research Institute. He is a scientific member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the Max Planck Society. He was awarded both of the two highest honors of the Population Association of America, the Taeuber prize for innovation in biodemography and the Sheps prize for developing the mathematics of heterogeneous populations. He won the IPSEN Foundation award as well as the Seneca Medal for his research on longevity. In 2011 he was awarded the European Latsis Prize by the European Science Foundation.
Finances
In accordance with the procedure for any corporate foundation, SCOR has allocated funds to the Foundation for Science for a multi-year research program renewable every 5 years. The initial amount allocated is EUR 300,000.
The Foundation will receive funding from SCOR for a range of commitments amounting to around EUR 1.5 million per year minimum. These commitments will include the transfer of responsibility from the Group to the Foundation for existing actions to promote scientific research, and any new projects in which it decides to intervene.
SCOR notably chose the status of corporate foundation for its flexibility in terms of management and for the possibilities it presents in terms of additional funding. Depending on the projects submitted to the Foundation and the recommendations made by the Board of Directors and the Scientific Board, SCOR will regularly examine the possibility of making any additional budgetary contributions.
