Award for Research
Annual Award for Outstanding Public Policy Research from an Actuarial Perspective by an Early Career Scholar
The American Academy of Actuaries Award for Research recognizes an early-career scholar whose work contributes significantly to an actuarial perspective on a public policy issue of interest to U.S. actuaries and public policy makers.
Each year, the Award is devoted to research on a particular theme with broad applicability across different policymaking and regulatory environments and across actuarial practice areas.
Now Accepting Submissions for 2026
The American Academy of Actuaries’ Research Committee invites submissions for consideration by March 31, 2026. The winner will be announced in early summer of 2026.
For 2026, the Award theme is:
Access, Affordability, and The Protection Gap: Determinants, consequences, and policy recommendations to manage financial risk
The Award will include a monetary prize of $7,500 and presentations of the work, both virtually in an Academy webinar and in person at the Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) in late July at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. The Academy will cover reasonable travel expenses.
To submit, please complete the online submission form below.
All submissions will be acknowledged soon after receipt. Finalists for the award will be notified in May, with a winner notified in June. Arrangements will then be discussed for presentation of the winning research at the Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) in July and in an Academy webinar.
Access to affordable insurance and retirement savings plans is an important facet of financial security for individuals, households, and communities to safeguard against future risks and to ensure wellbeing. Despite the importance of insurance and retirement savings for economic security, disparities in access endure across social, economic, and geographic groups. At the same time, there is growing concern over rising costs of insurance and deductibles across many lines of business. The lack of affordability is one of the drivers of limited access and the protection gap. The Academy invites early-career scholars to submit papers that contribute to an actuarial perspective on the determinants, consequences, and policy recommendations for insurance and retirement savings access and affordability.
Possible areas of research:
- Explanations for gaps and disparities in insurance coverage and retirement savings;
- Examination of consequences of being un(der)insured or outliving retirement savings;
- A review of trends in access and affordability;
- Analysis of policies that facilitate insurance coverage and affordability.
Specific Examples:
- Evaluations of legislative or regulatory requirements which limit access or expand access;
- How financial literacy contributes to gaps or disparities in insurance coverage and/or retirement savings;
- Impact of protection gap on health, wealth and/or retirement security;
- Assessments of policies, programs or practices which reduce losses, leading to lower premiums;
- Assessment of state retirement plans, designed to provide access to those without access to an employer-provided plan?
To be eligible, submissions must meet the following criteria:
- Should be related to this year’s theme
- Publication Type:
- Publications in peer-reviewed journals;
- Papers or articles accepted for publication but not yet published;
- Ph.D. or other thesis chapters; or
- Other rigorous published
- All submissions expected to be in the 10,000–20,000-word range.
- Publication Date: Publications, articles, and other publication types mentioned above published or accepted for publication since January 1, 2024; for Ph.D. thesis chapters, chapters from theses accepted by the Ph.D. committee as fulfilling the requirement of the degree, or theses leading to the awarding of degrees since January 1, 2024;
- Education: Authored by an early career scholar, defined as:
- Ds who have received their degrees within the previous five calendar years (e.g., for the 2026 award, 2021–2025); or
- Those currently enrolled or enrolled within the previous five calendar years in a Ph.D. program; or those whose highest academic degree was awarded within the previous five calendar years.
- Note: as long as the submitting author meets the criteria and was one of the main authors of the submission, the submission criteria are satisfied, even if co-authors would not meet the criteria.
- Subject Matter: The subject matter of the research relates to an issue of insurance or financial risk of interest to United States public policy makers, regulators, or interested stakeholders and that the results could be useful (directly or indirectly) to US actuaries and policy makers.
- Actuarial perspective: The analysis presented is clearly actuarial in perspective. Factors to be considered for this criterion are:
- Most importantly, the nature of the work, and whether it reflects the careful attention to factors such as data quality, statistical, mathematical and logical analysis, and financial risk characteristic of actuarial work; and
- The Ph.D. degree (or highest degree obtained), and whether it was or will be awarded by a Department of Actuarial Science, or in a broader field (e.g., Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Public Policy) with a concentration or significant focus on actuarial science or its equivalent; and/or
- Whether the submitting researcher, their coauthors, or their supervising faculty advisers are members of an actuarial association or have made contributions to actuarial
- Country of Residence: Subject to meeting the other criteria, anyone in any country may submit an article or thesis chapter for
- Deadline: submitted by March 31, 2026
If you believe that you have an article or thesis chapter that ought to be considered as:
- an actuarial perspective related to Access, Affordability, and the Protection Gap;
- with relevance to United States public policy making;
- by an early career scholar;
but are unsure whether the eligibility criteria as specified have been met, please contact Steve Jackson (sjackson@actuary.org) to discuss.