To carry out this ambitious research agenda, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance will continue developing and hosting the largest and most comprehensive database on alternative finance anywhere in the world, for use and analysis by academic and policy researchers. The CCAF database already comprises more than one million granular-level alternative finance transactional data totalling £1bn; qualitative survey data aggregated from over 15,000 individual borrowers and lenders, investors and entrepreneurs, donors and charities, renewable energy firms, social enterprises and community organisations that have used alternative finance; national consumer and SME alternative finance awareness and perception polls and hundreds of in-depth qualitative interviews.
The Global Alternative Finance Data Depository hosted by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance will facilitate collaborative research among academic institutions, encourage transparency and best practice in the alternative finance industry and promote policy learning at regional, national and supranational levels. The data depository will have state-of-the-art security and privacy capabilities to ensure the safety and confidentiality of the data. All data collected by the depository will be meticulously cleaned, anonymised and only analysed in aggregation wherever possible.