About Us
Smart Factor and ESG/Climate Investing
Scientific Beta aims to encourage the entire investment industry to adopt the latest advances in smart factor and ESG/Climate index design and implementation. Established in December 2012 by EDHEC-Risk Institute, one of the top academic institutions in the field of fundamental and applied research for the investment industry, as part of its mission to transfer academic know-how to the financial industry, Scientific Beta shares the same concern for scientific rigour and veracity, which it applies to all the services that it provides to investors and asset managers. We offer the smart factor and ESG/Climate solutions that are most proven scientifically, with full transparency of both methods and associated risks.
On January 31, 2020, Singapore Exchange (SGX) acquired a majority stake in Scientific Beta. SGX is maintaining the strong collaboration with EDHEC Business School, and principles of independent, empirical-based academic research, that have benefited Scientific Beta’s development to date.
Scientific Beta has developed two types of expertise over the years corresponding to two major concerns for investors:
- Expertise in the area of Smart Beta, and more particularly factor investing
- Expertise in the area of ESG, and particularly Climate investing
To date, Scientific Beta is offering two major types of climates objectives:
- Since 2015, offerings with financial objectives respecting ESG and Carbon constraints. These offerings correspond to the application of exclusion filters, the design of which allows the financial characteristics of the index to be conserved. This involves reconciling financial objectives and compliance with ESG norms and climate obligations. As such, the Core ESG, Extended ESG and Low Carbon filters can be integrated into smart beta or cap-weighted offerings in line with the financial objectives targeted by the investor.
- Since 2021, Scientific Beta has been offering indices with pure climate objectives (Climate Impact Consistent Indices) that allow climate exclusions and weightings to be combined in order to translate companies’ climate alignment engagement into portfolio decisions.
Since it was acquired by SGX in January 2020, Scientific Beta has accelerated its investments in the area of Climate Investing as part of the SGX Sustainable Exchange strategy, which is mobilising an investment of SGD 20 million. In addition, EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute and Scientific Beta established a research chair in 2023 to address the pressing need for fit-for-purpose tools to integrate climate risks into investment management.
Scientific Beta provides rich analytics on the results of its different strategies in terms of performance and risks. These analytics help investors develop a clear understanding on how the different parts of the portfolio construction methodology influence the overall investment outcome. Moreover, the information conveyed by the analytics can also assist investors in making comparisons across different indices.
For further information about Scientific Beta, please contact us on +33 493 187 863 or at info@scientificbeta.com.