What is project FIRE?

Admin

“The FIRE – Financial Information Retrieval Ecosystem – project is an international cross-disciplinary research consortium/project with the aim of being in the forefront of investigating one of todays and tomorrow’s major challenges for the society. The flow and use of digitized financial information.”

The project covers different aspects as:

  • Accounting
  • Business Intelligence
  • Data Science
  • Law
  • Psychology

The idea is to investigate the current status, new methods to utilize the benefits of new technologies and to provide knowledge for decision makers.

“What if mandatory book-keeping obligations could be abolished?”

Financial information that might cover a very broad spectrum of information, including the personal data of individuals, is important for numerous applications and users, for example, for investment & finance, tax purposes, statistics, company law etc. The creation, collection, storing, processing and spreading of financial information is still to a large extent handled by the business operators (e.g. corporations) by preparing and filing annual reports and other external financial reports. It can be argued that this system is old fashioned and that financial information could be handled much more efficiently, both in terms of workload and usefulness through modern technology (automation, artificial intelligence etc.) and new ways of handling and thinking regarding financial information. 

“Is annual reporting the best way to provide the stakeholders with high quality information for decision making?”

Digitized financial information that is provided online and in real time could be very beneficial to the stakeholders. In order to utilize the real power in this, it is essential that new methods and new tools are developed. The use of big data sets is a driver towards the use of technical solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Business administration tools are to a larger extent becoming cloud-based online. Authorities are looking at different blockchain solutions to provide information and to communicate with users.

“What impact will real time reporting of financial information have on corporate secretes and personal integrity?”

Digitized information stored in cloud-based solutions, concentrated to one or a few access points, also brings to the fore problems regarding personal integrity (human rights), corporate secrets and cyber security. In addition, the perspective of sustainable development is an important aspect of the ongoing development.

“How can the flow and use of financial information be formed to contribute to economic fairness and equality?”

The FIRE project aims to be at the forefront in investigating of the possibilities, risks and effects of using new technology in connection with the use of financial information. One main objective is to provide knowledge for policymakers and politicians to constitute a solid basis for changes to the legislation so that it best meets future demands for more efficient business models, more accurate public services, more effective and fair taxation, and at the same time protects integrity.

Partner Universities

Project FIRE is lead by the law department at Örebro University in Sweden. At the moment researchers from following universities participates in the consortium:

The project also has a close collaboration with the DigiTax Center in Antwerp.

The project has an initiation funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond in Sweden, and research funding from KK-stiftelsen and Wenner-Grens stiftelserna.

Members