CBS to open a new Center of Excellence for Big Data in Finance

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Providing new fundamental insights about finance is the ambition for the Center for Big Data in Finance, a new research center at Copenhagen Business School. The center is one of few in Denmark to have been carefully selected among numerous applicants representing all fields of research with a prospect of direct support from the Danish National Research Foundation. At the head of the center is Professor Lasse Heje Pedersen, one of the most cited financial economists in the world.

- The research center aims to generate useful tools that provide a new understanding of the world of finance based on the combination of large data sets, a revolution in data science and computer power, and new economic theory, says Lasse Heje Pedersen, future leader of the Center for Big Data in Finance. He continues:

- The center has a unique opportunity to leverage the synergies of combining leading scholars on financial markets with experts on the economic agents that make up these markets (households and financial institutions) as well as experts on analyzing the unique data sets that the center will have access to.  We will be analyzing the broadest global market data across all asset classes and the deepest data consisting of complete Danish register data and data from financial authorities and selected financial institutions. I am excited and cannot wait to get started, says Lasse Heje Pedersen.

Photo: Poul Christensen

Unparalleled in Denmark
According to Søren Hvidkjær, Dean of Research, the center team will consist of 11 senior researchers; six men and five women, as well as PhD students, and will be affiliated with the Department of Finance at CBS, which already houses CBS’ first center of excellence, the Center for Financial Frictions (FRIC). FRIC was established in 2012 and will conclude this year.

- We are immensely proud that the Danish National Research Foundation has started contract negotiations to finance a new center of excellence at CBS. I am convinced that the center will deliver transformative research to the benefit of society, says Søren Hvidkjær and adds:

- With Lasse Heje Pedersen, the center will be led by an internationally renowned financial economist whose research is unparalleled in Denmark. He is also highly dedicated to developing research talents, and several of his former PhD students now pursue careers at leading American and European universities. The grant makes it possible to further boost this essential talent development and thus ensure the next generation of researchers in financial economics.

International trailblazers
The center is prospected to receive DKK 59.4 million from the Danish National Research Foundation, which is the largest external one-off research grant CBS has received so far. With 10 other projects in Denmark, the center has now been selected to negotiate a contract for establishing a basic research center or a so-called center of excellence. Jens Kehlet Nørskov, Chair of the Danish National Research Foundation, says:

- We believe that the 11 new centers of excellence will become international trailblazers in Danish research; that they will set the agenda and deliver groundbreaking results within their field.

The center is expected to open at the end of the year. In the first instance, the grant will cover the activities for six years.

Short biography for Lasse Heje Pedersen
1997 MSc in Mathematics and Economics, University of Copenhagen
2001 PhD, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
2001-2014 New York University, Stern School of Business, research career from assistant professor to professor and today distinguished visiting research professor
2011- present Copenhagen Business School, Professor at the Department of Finance and FRIC
2022 Leader of the Big Data in Finance Center of Excellence

Read more about Lasse Heje Pedersen here.

For more information, please contact:
Lasse Heje Pedersen, e-mail: lhp.fi@cbs.dk, telephone: +45 3815 3902
Jens Kehlet Nørskov can be reached through Lotte Ladegaard Zeuthen, e-mail: llz@dg.dk, telephone: +45 3318 1959
Søren Hvidkjær, e-mail: sh.dir@cbs.dk
 

Read the Danish National Research Foundation press release on the grants here.