A research chair at the University of Antwerp, in partnership with AdvanThink.

The FraudShift chair is a research collaboration between the University of Antwerp and software company AdvanThink, formally launched on 12 May 2026 during an academic ceremony at the Stadscampus of the University of Antwerp.

The chair focuses on fraud analytics: the use of statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to detect suspicious patterns in financial data. Fraud comes in many forms: phishing emails, cryptocurrency scams, payment fraud, accounting scandals.

"Fraud is no longer a marginal phenomenon, but a structural problem that undermines trust in financial systems and institutions." says Prof. Jakob Raymaekers. The FraudShift chair was created to address this challenge: developing fraud detection systems that are not only more accurate, but more reliable, more robust, and better equipped to deal with the realities of evolving fraud.

The chair is led by Prof. Tim Verdonck and Prof. Jakob Raymaekers, both from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Antwerp. Together with a team of doctoral researchers from Antwerp, they work to bring academic research and practical applications closer together, developing methods that can keep pace with fraudsters who adapt quickly whenever new countermeasures are introduced.

"Fraud will probably never disappear completely, but by remaining innovative, we try to stay one step ahead."

Prof. Tim Verdonck