University Of Warwick To Launch Fintech Research Group

The Coventry-based University of Warwick has received a £1.25 million donation to launch a research group focusing on financial technology (fintech) innovation in the real estate sector.

The FutureFinance.AI Research Group is to be based at the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology at Warwick Business School, and aims to bring together interdisciplinary scholars and thinkers from across the world to redefine the financial and property technology landscape.

Professor Ram Gopal, director of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, who is to lead the new group, said it aims to develop new research areas and harness technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to reshape the way people purchase, sell, rent and handle real estate.

“AI has enormous potential to reshape real estate, with near and long-term impacts ranging from the emergence of new markets and asset types to innovations in investment and revenue models,” he said.

New tools

He said the research group would aim to attract global research talent to lead debate on the application of new technologies affecting “the way we spend, earn and save daily”.

“This is a field that has been transformed in recent years, and in 10 years’ time will once again be unrecognisable,” he said.

The donation was from an unnamed person based in India, he said.

He said the new group would focus on AI, machine learning and data science in fintech and property technology and would work with partners to design new tools and scale them up.

Earlier this month the university was awarded a share of £100m in funding from the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation for an AI project studying how ethical principles relate to the practical challenges of using AI in cities.

‘AI in the Streets’

The “AI in the Streets” project is led by researchers from the University of Warwick and Monash University in Melbourne, working with colleagues from the University of Cambridge.

“We want to use this insight to highlight the specific transformations, benefits, harms, and responsibilities that arise from ‘AI’ in real-world settings, and to communicate these to AI scientists and industry representatives so that they, too, can learn from the street,” said University of Warwick Professor Noortje Marres at the time.

She said the studies relate to technologies such as autonomous vehicles, facial recognition and AI-based mobile apps.

The project was part of broader government funding aimed at ensuring the UK is a leader in AI research.