LONDON, 18 August 2020 – The Willis Research Network (WRN) today announces a new partnership with Metabiota, a risk analytics organisation that specialises in infectious diseases modelling and helps businesses and countries build resilience to pandemics.
The partnership will leverage Metabiota’s epidemiological data analytics capabilities to improve understanding of pandemic risk, build better pandemic risk models, and support mitigation and risk transfer decision making for increased resilience.
The partnership will also help the global community across both public and private sectors manage the next pandemic in a more broadly informed and pre-planned way once the current crisis has passed its peak. In the private sector, the partnership will help clients improve their structural resilience to pandemics and navigate human resources, insurance business and investment issues more effectively.
“The research partnership with Metabiota highlights Willis Towers Watson's commitment to developing a full understanding of pandemic risk.”
John Haley,
CEO, Willis Towers Watson
John Haley, CEO, Willis Towers Watson, said: “The research partnership with Metabiota highlights Willis Towers Watson's commitment to developing a full understanding of pandemic risk and providing risk transfer tools to enable communities to build greater resilience to pandemic diseases such as COVID-19. We are focussed on finding innovative ways to apply our risk, capital and people expertise, and with Metabiota we bring a valuable new partner into that mission.”
Simon Young, senior director, Climate and Resilience Hub, Willis Towers Watson, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Metabiota into the Willis Research Network and look forward to working together through our Climate and Resilience Hub. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has shone the brightest of lights on the global need for improved understanding of and preparedness for communicable disease risk, and we plan for our work with Metabiota to encompass innovations around risk understanding tools as well as risk management advisory services and risk transfer solutions.”
Nita Madhav, CEO of Metabiota, said: “Epidemics and pandemics are very complex risks in terms of how they spark, evolve and impact societies and economies. We’re delighted to collaborate with colleagues across Willis Towers Watson to better understand and quantify the risk posed by pandemics. This partnership recognises the scientific leadership, knowledge and expertise that Metabiota brings to assessing epidemic and pandemic risk, to ultimately protect lives and livelihoods.”
The Willis Research Network (WRN) is an award-winning collaboration between academia and the finance and insurance industries. Since it was founded in 2006, the WRN has explored ways in which the world’s leading research organisations can help confront the challenges of managing risk and delivering resilience for our industry, providing a transmission between research and business. Through the WRN, Willis Towers Watson has teamed up with more than 50 world-leading institutions pioneering science and new analytical approaches to traditional problems of greatest relevance to our clients and our industry. Learn more at willistowerswatson.com/wrn.
Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ: WLTW) is a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company that helps clients around the world turn risk into a path for growth. With roots dating to 1828, Willis Towers Watson has 45,000 employees serving more than 140 countries and markets. We design and deliver solutions that manage risk, optimise benefits, cultivate talent, and expand the power of capital to protect and strengthen institutions and individuals. Our unique perspective allows us to see the critical intersections between talent, assets and ideas — the dynamic formula that drives business performance. Together, we unlock potential.
Metabiota supports decision makers across government and industry to make data-driven decisions. We work to estimate, mitigate and manage epidemic risk, supporting global health security and sustainable development. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and the team includes global leaders in epidemiology, veterinary medicine, laboratory science, data science, actuarial science, social science and political economics. Metabiota has developed a unique data analytics platform to quantify epidemic risk, the Global Epidemic Monitoring and Modeling platform.
