E-finance-lab at the House of Finance : about us

The financial services industry is believed to be on the verge of a dramatic [r]evolution. A substantial redesign of its value chains aimed at reducing costs, providing more efficient and flexible services and enabling new products and revenue streams is imminent. But there seems to be no clear migration path nor goal which can cast light on the question where the finance industry and its various players will be and should be in a decade from now. The mission of the E-Finance Lab is the development and application of research methodologies in the financial industry that promote and assess how business strategies and structures are shared and supported by strategies and structures of information systems. Important challenges include the design of smart production infrastructures, the development and evaluation of advantageous sourcing strategies and smart selling concepts to enable new revenue streams for financial service providers in the future. Overall, our goal is to contribute methods and views to the realignment of the E-Finance value chain. ..

Conference Report The 16th Asia Europe Economic Forum. EU-Asia trade and investment connectivity

Global economic trends over the last decades have steadily increased the links between Asia and Europe. For both regions, a growing economic interdependency represents an opportunity to build strong, fair and sustainable relations. Nonetheless, constant global economic disruptions, political uncertainty and a rapid change in economic dynamics make cooperation no easy task for policy makers. With strong recognition of this challenge, the Asia Europe Economic Forum (AEEF) contributes to interregional cooperation with the diversification and consolidation of the links between Asia and Europe. The AEEF was established in 2006 by Jean Pisani-Ferry, the then-director of the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, as a high-level forum to bring together Asian and European senior policy makers and experts. As such, the Forum is a platform for research-based exchange and discussion on global issues and mutual interests. It is here where Asian and European policy experts can learn from each other, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the economic and political ties between Asia and Europe. The AEEF is all about bringing countries together and building partnerships with regard to shared interests—the AEEF is all about connectivity (see Box 1).

The future of hiring : landing jobs as a paradigm of future trends

In today's evolving global landscape, effective talent management is critical for organizations to remain competitive and thrive. However, many businesses face challenges in their talent acquisition and management practices, including issues of cultural barriers, legal constraints, limited efficiency, and lack of innovation. Simultaneously, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and remote work are disrupting traditional processes across industries. These technologies hold the potential to revolutionize talent management practices, providing new opportunities for higher efficiency and effectiveness. This thesis discusses disruptions in the HR industry and their impact on global talent recruitment and management practices to address the gap between effective talent management and the challenges faced by organizations. The research combines comprehensive analysis of existing academic literature with qualitative insights from experts and executives in the field along with quantitative data gathered from a job posting platform. The results provide insights for firms seeking to enhance talent management practices. Practical recommendations are formulated based on the integration of expert insights and academic research. The thesis contributes to the growing body of knowledge on how to navigate in this rapid changing field of global talent management, providing evidence-based material that can inform strategic decision-making and drive organizational success in an increasingly competitive global market.No panorama de evolução global atual, uma gestão eficaz de talento é crucial para que as organizações prosperem e se mantenham competitivas. Não obstante, muitas empresas enfrentam desafios nas suas práticas de aquisição e gestão de talento, incluindo problemas de barreiras culturais, restrições jurídicas, pouca eficiência e falta de inovação. Simultaneamente, as tecnologias emergentes, tais como a inteligência artificial (AI) e o trabalho remoto, estão a perturbar os processos tradicionais em todas as indústrias. Estas tecnologias têm o potencial de revolucionar as práticas de gestão de talento, proporcionando novas oportunidades para uma maior eficiência e eficácia. Esta tese analisa as perturbações na indústria de recursos humanos e o seu impacto nas práticas globais de recrutamento e gestão de talento para colmatar a lacuna entre a gestão eficaz dos talentos e os desafios enfrentados pelas organizações. A investigação combina uma análise exaustiva da literatura académica existente com uma visão qualitativa de peritos e profissionais na indústria, bem como dados quantitativos recolhidos a partir de uma plataforma de emprego. Os resultados fornecem informações às empresas que procuram melhorar as práticas de gestão de talento. As recomendações práticas são formuladas com base na integração dos conhecimentos dos peritos e da investigação académica. A tese contribui para o crescente conhecimento de como navegar nesta indústria da gestão global de recursos humanos que se encontra em rápida mudança. Providenciando conhecimento consubstanciado em evidencias que permite informar a tomada de decisões estratégicas e impulsionar o sucesso organizacional num mercado global cada vez mais competitivo

Strategic Research Agenda for organic food and farming

The TP Organics Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) was finalised in December 2009. The purpose of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) is to enable research, development and knowledge transfer that will deliver relevant outcomes – results that will contribute to the improvement of the organic sector and other low external input systems. The document has been developed through a dynamic consultative process that ran from 2008 to 2009. It involved a wide range of stakeholders who enthusiastically joined the effort to define organic research priorities. From December 2008 to February; the expert groups elaborated the first draft. The consultative process involved the active participation of many different countries. Consultation involved researchers, advisors, members of inspection/certification bodies, as well as different users/beneficiaries of the research such as farmers, processors, market actors and members of civil society organisations throughout Europe and further afield in order to gather the research needs of the whole organic sector

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications

Scenarios for the development of smart grids in the UK: literature review

Smart grids are expected to play a central role in any transition to a low-carbon energy future, and much research is currently underway on practically every area of smart grids. However, it is evident that even basic aspects such as theoretical and operational definitions, are yet to be agreed upon and be clearly defined. Some aspects (efficient management of supply, including intermittent supply, two-way communication between the producer and user of electricity, use of IT technology to respond to and manage demand, and ensuring safe and secure electricity distribution) are more commonly accepted than others (such as smart meters) in defining what comprises a smart grid. It is clear that smart grid developments enjoy political and financial support both at UK and EU levels, and from the majority of related industries. The reasons for this vary and include the hope that smart grids will facilitate the achievement of carbon reduction targets, create new employment opportunities, and reduce costs relevant to energy generation (fewer power stations) and distribution (fewer losses and better stability). However, smart grid development depends on additional factors, beyond the energy industry. These relate to issues of public acceptability of relevant technologies and associated risks (e.g. data safety, privacy, cyber security), pricing, competition, and regulation; implying the involvement of a wide range of players such as the industry, regulators and consumers. The above constitute a complex set of variables and actors, and interactions between them. In order to best explore ways of possible deployment of smart grids, the use of scenarios is most adequate, as they can incorporate several parameters and variables into a coherent storyline. Scenarios have been previously used in the context of smart grids, but have traditionally focused on factors such as economic growth or policy evolution. Important additional socio-technical aspects of smart grids emerge from the literature review in this report and therefore need to be incorporated in our scenarios. These can be grouped into four (interlinked) main categories: supply side aspects, demand side aspects, policy and regulation, and technical aspects.