Celebrating Progress, Partnerships and the Future of FinTech Collaboration
National Museum Cardiff – 24 November 2025
On Monday, we brought the UKFin+ Network together at the beautiful National Museum of Wales in Cardiff for our Annual Research Showcase. It was a day of insight, reflection, and collaboration, surrounded by an extraordinary cohort of academics and industry partners.
This showcase is always one of our favourite moments of the year. It’s where we pause to reflect on what our funded projects have achieved so far, where new connections form over coffee (with Welsh cakes) and posters, and where the possibilities for the coming year start to take shape. This year’s event was bigger than ever, filled with rich discussions, forward-thinking research, and a renewed sense of shared purpose.
A Warm Welcome and a Look Ahead
We opened with a welcome from Dr Jonathan Thompson (Cardiff University) and then a presentation from our Project Lead, Professor Aad van Moorsel, who shared the UKFin+ Network’s achievements and our vision for the year ahead. He emphasised how far the network has come and how varied our research portfolio now is, from consumer credit and vulnerability to ESG, explainability, crypto regulation and AI-enabled compliance systems. The Showcase is our chance to highlight this diversity and celebrate the progress being made across the UKFin+ community.
During his opening remarks, Aad shared an exciting preview of what lies ahead for UKFin+ in 2026, placing a strong spotlight on our next major initiative: UKFinnovator, a regional FinTech innovation competition designed to bring students, industry partners and real-world problem-solving together. Over two days, students will solve company challenges, collaborate across disciplines and pitch solutions that could grow into real startups. With cash prizes, accelerator pathways, industry mentorship and a vibrant community experience, UKFinnovator is positioned to become a national programme, with Birmingham hosting the first event on 31st January – 1st February 2026, and future editions planned for Cardiff, Edinburgh and Cambridge.
Our keynote was delivered by Clement Stross, Principal Data Scientist at Admiral Group, who gave a brilliant talk titled “Ethical Data Science Takes Hard Work.” Clement showed how AI models can still create unfair outcomes even when they look accurate overall, using a powerful example from the criminal justice system. He explained that fairness in machine learning is complicated because different definitions of fairness often clash, and no model can meet them all at once. Clement highlighted the practical challenges that data scientists face every day, including missing or sensitive data, biased proxies, and small groups where error is difficult to measure. These issues mean teams sometimes have to make tough decisions, like limiting how a model is used, changing features, or even scrapping it entirely. He also touched on the rise of generative AI and the difficulty of checking whether these systems treat language, tone and culture fairly. The speech concluded that ethical data science is messy and complex, but that’s exactly why it matters and why collaboration between different disciplines is essential as AI becomes more central to financial services.
Showcasing Research from Across the Network
Our funded project presentations were a real highlight of the day, showcasing just how wide-ranging and impactful the UKFin+ research portfolio has become. We heard from teams working on AI and regulation, exploring explainability, hallucination risks, and new frameworks for using automation responsibly in financial decision-making. Several projects focused on inclusion and accessibility, including work on dementia-friendly FinTech, safeguarding the rights of disabled communities, and designing services grounded in the lived experiences of individuals. Consumer protection emerged as another strong theme, with research examining economic abuse, crypto awareness, and how to better safeguard vulnerable users. We also saw important advances in the ESG space, with teams developing tools to detect greenwashing and analyse sentiment around sustainable investing. Other projects explored digital innovation and risk, ranging from DeFi and credit intelligence to digital twins for modelling systemic risks. Together, these presentations showed the strength and diversity of the UKFin+ network as well as how academic research can drive more trustworthy, inclusive and forward-looking financial services.
Workshop: When Collaborations Collide – The Future of FinTech Partnerships
We ended the day with an energetic and thought-provoking workshop led by our director John Vines (University of Edinburgh) and Lorita Cornish, exploring one of the most persistent “wicked problems” facing our sector: How do we build better, deeper, more sustainable collaboration between academia and industry?
Using the Collaboration Collider framework, groups were asked to imagine:
- What excellent collaboration might look like in 2030,
- What values would underpin that ecosystem?
- What’s shifting right now that could accelerate progress, and
- What barriers, old habits, outdated models, and cultural gaps still hold us back?
The workshop encouraged individual reflection first (via post-it writing), then group discussion helping ensure everyone’s voice shaped the conversation. We concluded with each group offering three practical actions that UKFin+ could take to strengthen the ecosystem, and these ideas will now feed directly into our 2026 planning.
A Day That Captured the Heart of UKFin+
The showcase was made truly exceptional by lively discussions, a mix of expertise rarely seen in one place, and a genuine openness to challenge assumptions, exchange ideas, and work together on new possibilities. As one attendee put it afterwards, the day captured exactly what UKFin+ is becoming: a bridge between academia and industry, helping to build financial services that are more competitive, more trusted and more socially relevant.
We are incredibly grateful to all presenters, partners, attendees, and especially the staff at the National Museum Cardiff, who made the day seamless and welcoming. Thank you to everyone who joined us. We’re excited for what comes next, and we can’t wait to continue this journey with you.
More reflections, photos, and project spotlights coming soon.