11 June 2025 | 3 min. readingtime
On July 1, 2023, a.s.r. and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) established an ESG research center: Research Center for Sustainable Investments & Insurance (RCSII).
The amount of ESG data is increasing daily, partly due to the growing global importance of ESG. Companies are increasingly required to provide ESG data, but are often allowed to decide for themselves how they do so. As a result, there is considerable variation in the content and form of available ESG data. This variation hinders thorough ESG analysis and comparison between companies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging trend that can be used to analyze large amounts of unstructured data. The University of Amsterdam (UvA) has a strong reputation in the field of financial markets and AI and has already collaborated with various financial institutions. That is why a.s.r. and the UvA have decided to join forces. At the Research Centre for Sustainable Investments & Insurance (RCSII), a.s.r. and the UvA are jointly investigating how ESG data can be analyzed better and more easily, including with the help of AI. This makes it possible, for example, to quantify the impact of investments and detect greenwashing.
Over a period of six years, the RCSII will pursue three lines of research, each with two separate topics:
Three PhD students and three postdoctoral researchers from the University of Amsterdam are working on the research, together with their supervisors. The overall research should ultimately lead to innovative techniques for efficiently analyzing relevant ESG data and applying these techniques to investment and insurance issues.
With the research results, we want to help society and the financial sector as a whole move forward in the area of responsible investing and insurance. In addition, we aim to strengthen our ESG position and reduce our dependence on third parties for ESG insights and trends. In this way, we are taking a significant step towards a more sustainable world together.
Read more about RCSII and the various research topics.
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