University cooperation

Working with universities around the world, Zurich facilitates knowledge transfer and capacity-building in risk management, insurance economics, actuarial science and supervisory regimes. Achievements in this area include:

• The endowment of a professorship for Risk and Insurance Economics at the ETH Zürich. Part of the Centre for Integrative Risk Management, the professorship seeks to establish an integrated view of the diverse risks economies, enterprises and individuals face.
• The endowment of a permanent chair at the Research Centre for Insurance and Risk Management, housed at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management, which focuses on training insurance industry academics and professionals.
• The Insurance Institute at the University of St. Gallen, which focuses on research, education and consulting in insurance and risk management.
• An exchange program that brings students from Fudan (Shanghai) and Tsinghua (Beijing) Universities to the University of Zurich and sends students from the University of Zurich to each of those Chinese universities.
• The Zurich Chinese Scholars Fund at St. John's University School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, providing tuition and room and board for Chinese students to complete a one-year Master of Science program in Management of Risk.
• The Membership of Scholars program at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, which supports one year of research for distinguished scholars.
• The Zurich Distinguished Visitors Program at the University of California at Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, allowing international leaders in environmental policy, law, business, and science to share their insights on climate change.
• The Zurich Dissertation Prize recognizes an outstanding dissertation on the topic of risk from the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zürich. In 2010, the prize was awarded to Dr. Oliver Schneider, whose thesis explores how to mitigate investment decision risks by assessing the economic value of supply chain initiatives.