Inigo sponsors extreme weather and climate modelling research with the University of Cambridge

We are pleased to announce that we will be funding a three-year research programme at the University of Cambridge. This programme will apply the latest advances in computing and artificial intelligence to deepen understanding of how climate change has affected the risk of hurricanes. These kinds of extreme weather events have a devastating impact on communities around the world and are a significant driver of insurance claims. By better understanding the likelihood of these events, we will be able to ensure that our clients are more resilient to the impacts of the changing environment.

InSPIRe “Inigo Storm Prediction and Impact Research” will be supported by the Institute of Computing for Climate Science in Cambridge. The institute, which already supports six international climate modelling projects, is a leader in a new approach to modelling the climate that seeks to integrate climate scientists with computer scientists, mathematicians, research software engineers and other academics.

Richard Watson, Chief Executive of Inigo commented: “In hindsight, the approach that the insurance industry took to understanding risk when I started my career was rudimentary almost to the point of recklessness. Over the last 40 years it has been a privilege to be part of the transformation that has taken place. The sector is now a leading employer of scientists from a range of quantitative disciplines who work alongside large numbers of actuaries and technologists. We now rely on extremely sophisticated, probabilistic models to manage risk selection, hedging strategies and our capital requirements.  This project is part of our commitment to supporting advanced research and finding ways to apply that new knowledge in ways that have real economic impact.”

Adam Alvarez, Head of Climate and Capital Strategy of Inigo said: “Since the 1950s, improvements in Climate modelling have been driven by faster and faster computers that have enabled higher and higher resolution models. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have opened up the possibility for new data-driven ways to understand the climate that complement or even replace traditional Physics-based approaches. ICCS are at the forefront of this new approach and Inigo is extremely pleased to be supporting them in developing a deeper understanding of how climate change affects the risk of extreme weather events. Inigo has prioritised investment in data and analytics since we were founded almost four years ago. We have built a market leading team of meteorologists, seismologists and data scientists in an effort to understand our clients’ risk. The InSPIRe project is part of our effort to augment our in-house research teams by working with leading academic institutions and technology companies so that we can incorporate the latest ideas into our models.”

Professor Colm-Cille Patrick Caulfield, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) and co-Director for Science of ICCS said: “Addressing the climate crisis is a key research focus of DAMTP. We are delighted to host ICCS and through ICCS to collaborate with Cambridge Zero, the Department of Computer Science and Technology and the University Information Service. With our multidisciplinary team, we are actively contributing to the international effort of applying modern data-driven methods and software engineering to improve disruptively the predictive capability of climate models. The generous support of Inigo via the InSPIRe programme will enable our proven innovative approach to advance significantly the understanding and prediction of extreme weather events, clearly a hugely important and pressing research challenge in our rapidly changing climate.”

Professor Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge’s major climate change initiative said: “For the ideas and innovations we develop at the University of Cambridge to have the real-world impact we desire in supporting a resilient and sustainable future we need to collaborate with organisations working on the ground around the world. We are therefore delighted to have initiated this partnership with Inigo to bring cutting-edge developments in weather and climate science to the insurance sector. The aim is to transform the assessment of the risk of extreme weather in a changing climate by applying the latest advances in meteorology and computing, including exciting new AI-based approaches.”