The American Family Funding Initiative hosts events and offers resources to help applicants create competitive proposals.
American Family Funding Initiative Town Hall +
Opportunities for Innovation: Data Science and Insurance
This event was held on February 9 and was recorded.
2024 Town Hall slides
2024 Town Hall video
2024 Opportunities for Innovation: Data Science and Insurance video
The Town Hall meeting provided an overview of the 2024 topics of interest to American Family, changes to the 2024 application, instructions and tips for navigating the submission process, and resources available for applicants’ data and computing needs. Following the Town Hall, American Family presented information about how they use data science in the insurance industry.
Agenda
11:30-11:45: Welcome and program overview
11:45-12: Break for in-person participants to get lunch
12-12:45: Town Hall
12:45-1: Break (for in-person participants, American Family representatives will be on-hand to answer individual questions)
1-3: Opportunities for Innovation: Data Science and Insurance
American Family Insurance Office Hours
The AmFam team is available to answer business questions or provide feedback on your project idea as it relates to their topics of interest. We strongly encourage applicants to sign up for office hours.
Mentoring
Mentors advise applicants on proposal preparation, with an emphasis on writing the statement of work. Mentoring is solely for proposal writing and does not extend to project execution, should a project be selected for funding.
Who is eligible for mentoring? First-time applicants and returning applicants who have not received an award. PIs who have received prior awards through this initiative are not eligible for mentoring.
How often will we meet? Mentors are asked to meet at least twice with their applicants to discuss their statement of work and review a draft.
Will mentors advise applicants about insurance-related questions? No. The Town Hall/Opportunities for Innovation event and AmFam office hours are the best opportunities for applicants to get additional clarity on insurance-related questions.
Mentor request forms were due Feb. 15. We will do our best to find a mentor for every applicant who requests one. However, we cannot guarantee that everyone who requests a mentor will be matched with one.
Research Cyberinfrastructure
The team from UW Research Cyberinfrastructure is available to discuss the data management and computing resources available for your research project. To set up an appointment email rci@g-groups.wisc.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
After reading the American Family Funding Initiative FAQ, if you have additional questions about the application process, please email research@datascience.wisc.edu. For other project-related questions, please contact external-ml-research@amfam.com.