Another of the services provided by COOConnect to its members is access to a network of academics working in multiple fields at the leading universities of the United Kingdom. The network provides members with a virtual think tank, to which they can contribute their own experience and knowledge, as well as draw upon the research, ideas and innovative techniques of mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists and psychologists as well as economists and professors of finance.

To match members with the academic expertise they need, COOConnect has formed a partnership with the Financial Services Knowledge Transfer Network (FS KTN). This is an organization whose sole raison d’etre is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, innovations, knowledge and technology between people working in the financial markets and people engaged in fundamental and applied research, data analysis and technology development at a wide variety of university faculties.

COOConnect will be hosting a number of physical and virtual events, on a sponsored and an unsponsored basis, at which members can meet academics working in areas of interest to fund managers. We fully expect the exchanges to lead to formal research projects, in which an academic – typically assisted by a doctoral student – will explore an issue or analyse data on behalf of members or sponsors of COOConnect.

FS KTN can help source matching funding for projects approved by its funding organizations. Indeed, one of the roles of the FS KTN is to help people working in the financial markets to obtain funding for new initiatives that draw upon discoveries, innovations and techniques developed by academics working at universities in the United Kingdom. COOConnect members will work with FS KTN principals on identifying funding opportunities and options for projects.