This Request for Proposals is from the Institute for Faculty and Actuaries , with thanks to Nick Silver our colleague at the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets.
Call for Proposals – Modelling Pension Funds under Climate Change
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), through its Actuarial Research Centre, is inviting research teams and organisations to submit proposals for a project on modelling pension funds under climate change.
Timeline:
- Opening date: 5 April 2017
- Closing date: 12 May 2017 (17:00 UK time, BST)
- Expected award: End May 2017
- Expected commencement: Early June 2017
Call description:
Resource and environment issues, particularly climate change, are increasingly recognised as being relevant to the work of actuaries, and the IFoA undertakes a range of research, thought leadership and public affairs activities in this field. The impact of resource and environment issues on pension schemes is less understood. Uncertainty over the size of the potential impact, and therefore whether it is material, is one of the barriers to adequately reflecting these emerging issues.
In response, the IFoA has formed a Working Party of volunteer members to focus on this issue. The “Resource and Environment Implications for Pensions Actuaries” Working Party has created a Practical Guide for actuaries who advise UK defined benefit pension schemes which will be published shortly. The guide explains where resource and environment issues are relevant to pension schemes and the work of pensions actuaries, as a first attempt at helping them navigate the associated uncertainties, in collaboration with covenant and investment advisers.
It has concluded that the Practical Guide is likely to gain much more interest from and traction with, actuaries if it is supported by some quantification. Therefore the IFoA is commissioning a piece of quantitative research which will be used to develop the supplementary report on funding advice, as well as being made available through standalone research outputs.
The research is intended to address the need for pensions actuaries to understand the potential magnitude of climate change impacts, and hence if and when climate change might be relevant to the funding advice they give. The key difference from previous published work on pensions and climate change is that the Working Party would like this research to consider the impact on pension scheme liabilities as well as assets.
Eligibility:
Proposals would be welcomed from any research-led organisations within the university, not-for-profit, public or private sector. Organisations may be based in the UK or elsewhere in the world. We are particularly encouraging submissions from multi-disciplinary teams, which may span more than one organisation.