Τransport and mobility partnership networks in the EU

KEEP is a great joint depository of EU funded projects, run by the INTERACT Programme including valuable data such as project partners, funding, thematics results, and location. The ESPON project BIG DATA used KEEP in a case study and composed a dataset of the transport and mobility partnership networks in the EU the programming period 2014-2020. The objective of this case study was to conduct experiments with European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) data to analyse the interactions, volume and balance between the partners and to evaluate the usefulness of this data for corridor development. The project data acquired from KEEP were related to the programming period 2014-2020 and contained data about 2,353 projects with corresponding 18,318 partners across the EU. 

The novelty of the approach was the social network analysis that widens the understanding of spatial interactions and connectivities between regions, which is often lacking from corridor development activities. The experiments conducted in this case study demonstrated how big data analysis can reveal the spatial dimension of partnership networks.

These findings can support integrated policy-making that fosters greater corridor development and cohesion. They reveal imbalances in project collaboration among NUTS3 regions within the study area of this targeted analysis and wider Europe. The eastern parts of the Northern Growth Zone and some active zones in Europe (e.g. the Netherlands and northern Germany) seem to have a higher number of funded project partnerships, meanwhile Eastern and Southern Europe are surprisingly quiet in terms of such collaborations.

The results from such analysis could be used to extend networking activities and the development of funding instruments to support interregional project collaborations especially within, and with, the western parts of the corridor, and to legitimize transnational corridor development.

You can read more about the findings of this case study in the final report of our project BIG DATA (case study 2, page 38)