By Julia Goodwin
Senior Research Analyst
The Academy’s research team is entering 2026 eager to work with our volunteers across practice councils and incorporate their invaluable actuarial perspectives to address public policy issues. Through our collaboration with the Academy’s many committees and task forces, the research team is able to help facilitate both volunteer- and staff-led projects that ask important questions, refine methods, and produce valuable data and analysis, all in the spirit of advancing the actuarial profession.
We are enthusiastic about beginning another busy year, with the research team and the Academy’s Research Committee focused on contributing valuable and timely research that aligns with the organization’s mission and “mega issues” (which include current topics like AI and the impact of climate events). In addition, our priorities must incorporate the goals and priorities of the practice councils and their vice presidents (VPs), committee chairs, and volunteers.
The research team’s—and by extension, the Research Committee’s—priorities are inherently linked to and supportive of the goals of the five policy practice councils, reflecting volunteer inputon the coming year’s most pressing topics, as well as those emerging public policy issues likely to be critical within the next two to three years. With that in mind, the Research Committee’s leadership has proposed a collaborative, cross-practice process to further the Academy’s research priorities in 2026.
This proposal relies heavily on the hard work and time of the Research Committee liaison, who connects the committee with each practice council and their respective VPs. The liaison provides briefings on Research Committee activities to their respective practice council, while relaying information regarding projects, ideas, or other future research-related work back to the Research Committee. When a practice council has a research project ready for approval, the liaison presents the project to the Research Committee. Lastly, liaisons should facilitate the discussion of priority research topics within their practice area both within their practice council and with the Research Committee.
For the actual process of defining research priorities, Research Committee leadership proposed that liaisons will invite members of the Research Committee from their practice area to discuss plausible research topics that are consistent with their practice council’s priorities. Liaisons will report on the meeting to their practice council, so that the practice council can discuss which ideas and topics are most relevant or timely. The liaison will then communicate back to the Research Committee which research topics the practice council would prefer to prioritize. Committee members will then gather each practice council’s research priorities and identify areas where there is overlapping interest across practice councils.
If the Research Committee finds a gap where an important topic (for example, a Public Policy Department “mega issue”) is not covered by a practice council, they will reach out to the VPs to begin a collaborative process of identifying projects that fill the gap with as much relevance to as many practice councils as possible. Leveraging practice council priorities and public policy mega-issues, along with priority research topics from each practice council, the shared research topics across practice councils, and any identified gaps in research topics will allow the Research Committee to establish thorough, cross-practice research priorities.
Ultimately, this integrated approach ensures that our 2026 research is both strategically aligned and practically relevant to the evolving challenges of the actuarial profession. We look forward to working alongside our dedicated volunteers to transform these shared priorities into impactful data and analysis that inform sound public policy. For more information on our Research and to find out more about the 2026 Award for Research, please visit our website.