The year 2021 was again marked by the Covid-19 health crisis that disrupted social and economic life worldwide. Vaccination and health measures have made it possible to resume more open activities in 2022, at least in Europe. But the pandemic will leave lasting traces on the organisation of work, on the demand for housing and professional urbanism, and more generally on social organisation. Moreover, at the time of writing, the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions are challenging the “old world” and in particular the globalisation of production that has been the engine of growth in recent decades.

True to our identity as a partnership research network, rich in exchanges with our academic partners, public authorities and companies, this year has also enabled us to prepare for the post-crisis period and, we believe, the post ‘world before’.

For each of the four transitions that are our research themes, the effects of the pandemic have been to accelerate the transitions underway, and often to raise awareness of the urgency of the situation among public opinion and governments. In the case of the financial transition, the rise of electronic payments and blockchain-based products will further accelerate change. Similarly, the risks associated with global warming, the fragility of health systems or the financing of dependency have become mainstream issues and, as such, politically important.

The increased support of our partners has enabled the Institut Louis Bachelier (ILB), directly and through the two Foundations that created it, the Risk Foundation and the Europlace Institute of Finance (these three entities form the Louis Bachelier Group), to maintain its research funding at the level of 13.3 million euros in 2021 for the benefit of 72 chairs, initiatives and research programmes, and to envisage a more consistent development of the two strong areas of our structure: digital finance and green and sustainable finance.

In 2021, we have launched an update of the Risk Foundation’s statutes, which date from 2007, in particular to allow it to house foundations with programmes or activities for which a separate governance is useful. This would firstly be the case for PARC (Paris Accord Research Commons), a programme that contains a significant ‘green data’ component and which we expect to develop significantly in the context of the urgency of the climate transition. This evolution of the Risk Foundation into a “host foundation” will be one of the flagship projects of 2022.

The war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic will make 2022 a year marked by the fragmentation of the world with greater uncertainty about economic and financial developments. Partnership research, oriented towards action, which is the vocation of the Louis Bachelier Group, will be more necessary than ever.

ANDRÉ LÉVY-LANG, President of the Institut Louis Bachelier

Read the 2021 activity report