At UBS, collaboration with academia is central to how we explore the future of Artificial Intelligence and translate leading research into practical innovation. By working with leading universities and research institutes, we combine deep academic expertise with the scale, data, business insight and implementation experience needed to develop AI solutions for financial services.
Academia partnerships help move prominent ideas from research into real-world use cases, supporting innovation that is not only scalable, but also trustworthy, explainable, governed and ethical. These partnerships strengthen UBS’s access to leading AI talent and research ecosystems, supporting integration of Artificial Intelligence across our operations and client services in a responsible and value-generating way.
Our approach to academic collaboration in AI
Since 2018, UBS has been building partnerships with institutions at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence and technological innovation. These relationships are designed to create a bridge between academic discovery and the needs of a fast-evolving financial industry.
Our approach focuses on:
- Advancing AI research with real-world relevance and application
- Accelerating the development of AI-driven tools and solutions for financial services
- Embedding responsible AI principles, including data governance, fairness, transparency and explainability
- Attracting and developing top-tier talent in Artificial Intelligence and data science
Oxford-UBS Centre for Applied AI
As announced in 2025, the Oxford-UBS Centre for Applied AI brings together UBS and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division (MPLS) to advance research and real-world application of Artificial Intelligence.
Research at the Centre aims to focus on three core themes:
- AI and Society – including AI governance, fairness, ethical data and the future of work
- AI for Business and Economy – applying AI to drive transformation and innovation
- AI Futures – exploring emerging AI models and improving interpretability and explainability
To enable advanced research across the Centre’s core AI themes, UBS funds Postdoctoral Fellowships and PhD Studentships. The Centre is designed to bring together interdisciplinary expertise and industry perspective, supporting new thinking on how Artificial Intelligence can be developed, assessed and used in ways that are relevant to Financial Services and broader society.
Advancing AI in finance with IDSIA
In 2018, UBS started its collaboration with the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA) – a globally recognised AI research institute based in Switzerland. The partnership combines IDSIA’s academic rigour and expertise in machine learning, data science and intelligent systems with UBS’s financial services experience and global scale.
The collaboration focuses on frontier research, prototyping and proof-of-concepts, with projects aligned to UBS Business’ and Group Functions’ strategic priorities. Each project addresses one or more applied AI domains and is intended to generate tangible outcomes for UBS, including research insights, minimum viable products (MVPs) and scientific publications.
Through IDSIA, UBS continues to deepen its advanced AI research while building capabilities that can support innovation across bank-wide processes and capabilities.
