In this part-time role, Dave will co-ordinate a research programme looking at the process of innovation in payments. The goal will be to bring together the technology timeline, business drivers and social and cultural trends to construct a useful roadmap of the European payment market over the short, medium (5-10 year) and longer terms. This will be achieved using a combination of well-known road mapping techniques and innovation-based analysis specific to the financial sector.

Sandra Alzetta, Senior Vice President at Visa Europe, said that "Visa Europe is delighted to be able to support this fellowship. We are committed to helping our bank members across Europe to exploit new payment opportunities in more effective and innovative ways by pushing electronic payments beyond traditional card transactions and making new payment methods faster, more convenient and secure. I'm sure that the results of this research will help them to do just that."

The reason for adopting this approach is that it is clear that there are different dynamics to the technology, business and cultural drivers around payments. These dynamics make it difficult to determine the new products and services in the payments space that will be successful in given timeframes.

Andrew Hilton, Director of the London-based think-tank the CSFI, welcomed the second of their new research fellowships (the first, supported by Generali, began earlier this year). "I'm very much looking forward to working with Visa Europe and continuing the expansion our fellowship programmes."

CHYP Director Dave Birch, who chairs the annual Digital Money Forum every spring, says "I cannot thank Visa Europe and the CSFI enough for this opportunity to carry out fundamental research in the payments sector."

This research programme will attempt to understand enough about the innovation process in the financial sector to develop a road map that captures the cumulative evolution of technology, t the drivers across the coming business cycle and the key European social and cultural trends. This road map will then be used to identify a number of paths, directed by open and shared learning about previous innovations in the payment sector that will help European financial institutions, regulators and technology suppliers to guide their investments in new payments products and services more effectively.

The CSFI has a track record of long-term "blue sky" thinking in this field going back some time. Dr. Edward de Bono's CSFI report on The IBM Dollar was produced back in 1994. Dave Birch contributed to the first report on The Internet and Financial Services in 1997.