October 19, 2026 – Toronto, Canada – The International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM) is pleased to award $50,000 CAD to the winner of the 2026 Research Award. This year’s call for research garnered 70 high-quality submissions from around the world. Four finalists were invited to Toronto to present their work to the ICPM Research Council and broader pension community in person.

“The quality of the finalist presentations this year was extremely high. The Research Council found all of them very thought-provoking and innovative for the pension community. This resulted in a very active and meaningful deliberation among the Research Council members,” says Mike Simutin, ICPM Associate Director of Research and Professor of Finance at Rotman School of Management. “We congratulate the winner of the top prize and strongly believe all finalists have the potential to impact the industry.”

On October 2, senior-level industry practitioners, finance academics and media came together for the second annual Research Award Finale. The in-person presentations provided an opportunity to engage directly with the finalists. A presentation by each author was followed by an active Q&A session that allowed the audience to dive deeper into the research and examine the strength and applicability of the findings. The event also served as an important platform to showcase and highlight the high-calibre and impressive quality of the research.

The ICPM Research Council congratulates the winner of the ICPM 2026 Research Award, which decomposes geopolitical risk into geopolitical threats and geopolitical acts, and reveals that the two have very different financial-market consequences. Their analysis of nearly a century of data discovers that threats are what investors and firms actually respond to.

Winner($50,000 CAD):

• “The Pricing of Geopolitical Tensions over a Century” by Andrei Gonçalves (Ohio State University), Alessandro Melone (Ohio State University), Andrea Ricciardi (Ohio State University)– view recording of presentation and Q&A

ICPM also congratulates the other finalists for being recognized as the leading submissions among many high-quality contenders. Stay tuned for recordings of their presentations and Q&A in the coming weeks.

• “The Private Capital Alpha” by Gregory Brown (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Andrei Gonçalves (Ohio State University), Wendy Hu (MSCI) – view recording of presentation and Q&A
• “Efficient Decumulation Strategy with Health Risk and Bequest” by Jennifer Alonso-García (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Jonathan Ziveyi (UNSW Sydney), Mengdie Hu (UNSW Sydney), Yuxin Zhou (UNSW Sydney) – view recording of presentation and Q&A
• “Dollar Asset Holdings and Hedging Around the Globe” by Wenxin Du (Harvard Business School), Amy W. Huber (University of Pennsylvania) – view recording of presentation and Q&A

The research does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the network or the pension fund members.

ICPM’s Research Council is co-chaired by Mikhail Simutin (Rotman School of Management and ICPM Associate Director of Research) and Jaap van Dam (CPP Investments) and involves the following representatives: Mirko Cardinale (USS), James Davis (OPTrust), John Greaves (Railpen), Bing Han (Rotman School of Management), Julie Mallory (Independent), Scott McIntosh (OMERS), Gabriel Petre (World Bank), David Richardson (TIAA-CREF Investment Management), Sally Shen (CPP Investments), Onno Steenbeek (APG Asset Management), Paul Todd (Nest), and Sebastien Betermier (ICPM Executive Director).

The International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM) is a global, research-based network of asset owners that stimulates leading-edge thinking and practice about pension management. ICPM focuses on fostering long-term investing, strengthening governance of pension investments, and improving design and governance of pension schemes. For more information about ICPM in-person and online events – many of which are open to non-members – and research initiatives, please visit www.icpmnetwork.com.