The J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities (JPMCC) at the CU Denver Business School will be the home to the Global Commodities Applied Research Digest (GCARD), a new journal that is launching to deliver summaries of top research via the JPMCC’s website. For commodity practitioners, there has not been an accessible source of concise information about current commodities research, either in specific fields or across industries, the GCARD aims to solve this issue.

What type or stories/articles will be published in the Journal?

The digest’s content includes the following subject matter:

• Proceedings from the twice-a-year Research Council meetings, including summaries of the academic presentations, discussion, and debate;
• Summaries of articles from the Global Commodity Issues (Editor’s Choice) eJournal;
• Discussions of topical commodity issues, written by JPMCC scholars;
• JPMCC Professional Education Updates;
• Editorial Advisory Board Commentaries;
• Interviews with Thought Leaders in Commodities; and
• Contributions from the Research Council members.

The GCARD was the idea of Dr. Ajeyo Banerjee, who leads the JPMCC as its Executive and Faculty Director. Dr. Banerjee has noted that JPMCC aims to become the focal point of highly relevant commodities thought-leadership. The GCARD is just one element of this strategy; other efforts include:

• The Center’s Global Commodities Issues (Editor’s Choice) eJournal, edited by Professor Marcelle Arak, the Center’s CoBank Professor;
• The Center’s prestigious Research Council, which is made up of eminent academics and successful industry professionals, who ensure the research carried out through the Center has both academic rigor and practical relevance;
• The Center’s forthcoming international commodities conference, planned for Spring 2017, which will take place in Denver; and
• The recent launch of JPMCC Commodities Research Fellowship Awards.

The GCARD is produced twice per year by the JPMCC and has been made possible by a generous grant from the CME Group Foundation.   The grant proposal was submitted by Andrea Wagner and Valerie Brown from CU Denver’s Office of Advancement, with guidance from Dr. Marcelle Arak, the JPMCC’s CoBank Professor, and Hilary Till, Solich Scholar at the JPMCC.

Under the leadership of Dr. Banerjee, both Hilary Till and Matthew Fleming (Program Coordinator, JPMCC) then created the content and website for the digest.  This team, in turn, worked with Kim Halpern’s staff and their external professional web development contacts in creating a highly professional product that would be appealing to a practitioner readership. Till is the Contributing Editor of the GCARD.

The JPMCC also established an Editorial Advisory Board for the GCARD.  This international advisory board consists of experts from across all commodity segments. The board is composed of academics, researchers, educators, policy advisors, and practitioners, all of whom have an interest in disseminating thoughtful research on commodities to a wider audience. Board members provide Hilary Till, the Contributing Editor of the GCARD, with recommendations on articles that would be of particular relevance to commodity-industry participants as well as author articles in their particular areas of commodity expertise.

What will the Journal do for the CU Denver Business School/Commodities Center?

By way of background, the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities at the University of Colorado Denver Business School is the first center of its kind focused on a broad range of commodities, including agriculture, energy and mining.  Established in 2012, this innovative center provides educational programs and research in commodities markets, regulation, trading, financial fundamentals, investing, and risk management.  The J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities aims to become the global leader in applied commodities research and education.

The Global Commodities Applied Research Digest is one aspect of Dr. Ajeyo Banerjee’s work in ensuring that the JPMCC serves its applied commodities research mission.

Now, the ultimate goal for the JPMCC is for the Center to produce a subscription-based, Global Commodities Research Review (GCRR), which would include original, commissioned articles and periodically include a print version of this journal.   The GCARD is providing the JPMCC with the compilation experience, as well as the ability to assess the market interest for such an applied research journal.

The GCARD’s first issue was launched this spring.