Sustainability Report 2015
Research
In the field of natural hazards modelling we cooperate with universities and research institutions and provide financial assistance to appropriate initiatives. For example, Hannover Re has been a long-time supporter of the Geo Research Center in Potsdam and the Global Earthquake Model Foundation (GEM), whose mission is to improve public understanding and awareness of earthquake risks worldwide by promoting science and establishing consistent standards as well as to reduce the impacts of earthquakes on populations and concentrations of values. Since 2006, with a view to also promoting the growth of academic disciplines relevant to the insurance sector, we have helped to fund a visiting professor position at the University of Göttingen with a concentration in Anglo-American contract and tort law. In this way we are seeking to encourage a more international approach to the study of law. In addition, we support university research activities by sponsoring an endowed professorship in actuarial science and financial mathematics at the University of Hannover and we work with the Competence Centre for Insurance Science. We further support the work of thematically relevant Associations of Friends at various universities, including for example the Förderkreis des Instituts für Versicherungswesen at Cologne Technical University and the Verein Braunschweiger Finanz- und Wirtschaftsmathematiker e.V. at the University of Braunschweig. We are also a member of similar societies at the University of Hannover, the University of Ulm and the University of Oldenburg. Above and beyond our aforementioned involvement, we regularly offer field trips for students and systematically place various projects and topical issues with university departments.