Made for times of challenge

Institut Louis Bachelier (ILB) was established as an answer to a crisis; the financial crisis of 2008. Back then public, private and academic partners saw the need to create an independent research network between them to help find answers to societal issues that no one partner could lift alone.Launched 12 years ago with the long-term support of the Ministry of Finance and Caisse des Dépôts, ILB has grown to become home to a more than 60 partner-driven research chairs and a public, private, academic network that every day work to support sustainable development in finance and economics.

In March 2020, “business as usual” was changed radically for us all, but when the sanitary crisis erupted in the early spring, the Institut Louis Bachelier was quite well equipped to go into crisis management mode, adapt to a new reality and put efforts in place “pour la crise et après”. Our history has taught us how, as we were born out of a crisis.

Within a short time everyone was working from home and a digital ILB was up and running, as were the researchers in the network. In April we launched a call for projects related to the Covid-19 (p 7-8) and quite quickly researchers related to ILB were asked to join committees and task forces set up by government bodies. Some of this work can be found in the “ILB La crise et après” newsletter/webpage, featuring Covid-19 related publications, that was also launched in April (p 27). As you will see on page 26 ILB has transformed our usual physical events into digital and launched several new formats such as the ILB Brief videos, ILB Replay and a new ILB Podcast. If you take the time to visit institutlouisbachelier.org, you will find all of our research programs, publications and learning tools. Knowledge provided by ILB that is freely available for our stakeholders.

As 2020 is coming to an end and we are getting closer to a vaccine you might wonder: What’s next? At ILB the answer is: More of what we already do. Tomorrow, next year and beyond we will continue to seek research-based solutions for a world in transition. Together. If we want to solve the problems of tomorrow, we need to start by working together today. We need to be look ahead. Those who wait until tomorrow’s needs are imminent, will be late giving answers.

During the last couple of years ILB has accentuated its our research efforts in Green and Sustainable Finance (p 14) and Digital Transformation (p17). Going forward this will only be intensified. Both are transversal subjects and as such obvious for an interdisciplinary research network to host. The same can be said for another topic: the need for more women in science. At ILB we have decided to develop the label Women@ILB(p19)and four types of action are already supported by this label: the annual WiSE (Women in Science) event, ILB as new associate partner of the chair “Femmes et Science”, the ILB Brief: Women@ILB video series and the youngest of the herd: the Women@ILB Mentoring program.

None of these activities are done in solitude. At ILB, we work for and with our public, private, academic partners. If you are not already part of the network, we invite you to join us in our effort to identify issues today, that it will be of importance to society and sectors to have knowledge on tomorrow.

I hope you will enjoy this fourth issue of IRIS, a publication that gives an overview of what has been going on lately at ILB.

 

Jean-Michel Beacco,
CEO, Institut Louis Bachelier.

 

Download the English version HERE.