Event Background

Earth observation and remote sensing combined with machine learning has the potential to transform the availability of information in our financial system and change how risks, opportunities, and impacts are measured and managed by financial institutions. ‘Spatial finance’, where geospatial data is integrated into financial theory and practice, creates a significant opportunity for the financial services industry.

The Spatial Finance Initiative has been established to bring together research capabilities in space, data science, and financial services to make them greater than the sum of their parts. The Initiative is designed to be a funnel, undertaking and coordinating world-leading academic research and channelling these into real-world finance-related applications. The research will be translated into practical and pre-operational products and services by working closely with the finance community and geospatial and financial services providers.

The Initiative has been established by the Alan Turing Institute, Green Finance Initiative, Satellite Applications Catapult, and the University of Oxford. It is a multi-disciplinary multi-stakeholder project focused on globally significant research and applications.

The Initiative will have a number of outputs over multiple years: research projects, (pre-) operational demonstrators, events, training and capacity building, and the incubation of applications.
Speakers

• Rt Hon Claire Perry MP, Minister of State, UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
• Sir Roger Gifford, Chair, City of London Green Finance Initiative and the UK Green Finance Taskforce
• Rowan Douglas CBE, Head of Capital, Science & Policy Practice, Willis Towers Watson
• Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO, Planet
• Ben Caldecott, Director, Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme, University of Oxford
• Sam Adlen, Chief Strategy Officer, Satellite Applications Catapult
• Anastasia Shteyn, Programme Manager, Finance and Economic Data Science, Alan Turing Institute
• Roger Urwin, Global Head of Investment Content, Willis Towers Watson
• Gordon L. Clark, Professorial Fellow, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
• Martin Ewald, Managing Director and Head of Investment Strategy for Infrastructure Equity, Allianz GI
• Will Goodhart, Chief Executive, CFA Society of the United Kingdom
• Jessica Fries, Executive Chairman, The Prince of Wales’s Accounting for Sustainability Project
• Carel Cronenberg, Lead, MRV, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• Jonathon Gascoigne, Director of Risk Analytics, Capital, Science & Policy Practice, Willis Towers Watson
• Rebecca Self, CFO, Sustainable Finance, HSBC
• Ben Yeoh, Senior Portfolio Manager, Global Equities, RBC Global Asset Management

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