Professor Rama Cont is one of six researchers awarded funding in the first ever APEX awards, recognising the interdisciplinary nature of research.

Through the investigation of mathematical models of the financial sector, Professor Rama Cont from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial will look at the development of new insights into the monitoring and regulation of systematic risk.

The APEX award scheme offers up to £100,000 to established independent researchers wanting to pursue interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research that benefits wider society. The grants, which promote collaboration science, engineering, social sciences and humanities, are jointly awarded by the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The objectives of the two-year scheme are:

• support outstanding interdisciplinary research which is unlikely to be supported through conventional funding programmes 
• promote collaboration across disciplines, with a particular emphasis on the boundary between science and engineering and the social sciences and humanities
• support researchers with an outstanding track record, in developing their research in a new direction through collaboration with partners from other disciplines
• enable outstanding researchers to focus on advancing their innovative research through seed funding.