About CRAFT

The rise of Fintech exposes a critical gap between the world of traditional finance and the emerging fields of advanced technology that are now coming online, somewhat piecemeal, inside many parts of the financial system.

Mission & Focus

CRAFT’s mission is to assist the industry in achieving a great coherence in Fintech research and policy to bridge this gap. The I/UCRC model brings industry and academic representatives together to define a research agenda to support this overarching goal.

CRAFT is also intended to serve as a common forum for companies that might normally view themselves as competitors, and find it difficult to achieve a collaborative mode. CRAFT will facilitate a richer and less conflicted collaboration to address topics of common industry-wide concern. CRAFT also will have participation from representatives of the government world, including the major financial regulators, and can provide a forum for industry Members to interact with and influence public policy and regulation in this field.

What We Do

Access to Talent

Finding and hiring technically well-prepared talent is a challenge for many firms in the financial services industry. Much of the work on the research projects defined by CRAFT will be carried out by students at the participating Universities. Industry members will have a chance to work with these students, often “on location” within industry members’ facilities. It will afford members a chance to preview potential hires in a meaningful “real-world” work setting.

Access to Research Results

All members have full access to CRAFT’s research outcomes – including publications, intellectual property rights, and deployable technologies – on a non-exclusive, royalty-free basis. The CRAFT Value Proposition IP terms and conditions are standardized according to the NSF’s well-established template, which simplifies this often-tricky aspect of industry funding for academic research.

Leveraged Research Dollars

CRAFT provides each member with access to research reflecting an investment that is a large multiple of that member’s own financial contribution. As the Center grows, CRAFT will add new industry members. In 2015, for example, there were 75 active I/UCRC’s, with an average of 17 industry members per Center. This yielded approximately a 42:1 leveraging of research funds for members – that is, for each $1 that a member contributed in fees, that member received access to $42 of funded research. (See graphic below from the NSF.)

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Mission & Focus

What We Do