This project focuses on the development of data commons that enable understanding and monitoring of corruption, based on objective data. Already existing examples include Integrity Watch, Index for Public Integrity, T-Index and Russian Economic Footprint.
In BRIDGEGAP, former members of the ANTICORRP consortium are joined by other academic partners who have published novel methods for measuring money laundering and anthropologists and criminologists who have pioneered corruption studies in liberal democracies. Furthermore, they are helped by new IT teams that interconnect data to enable searches of the assets of sanctioned individuals through the 'Follow the Money' algorithm.
BRIDGEGAP will fill knowledge gaps on both the extent and the mechanisms through which corruption infiltrates open societies. The project measures corruption across countries, borders, and time by use of innovative models and social network maps. The gaps in all aspects of digital transparency are also evaluated to offer solutions. Finally, public accountability and anti-corruption legislation in EU member states and candidate countries are examined to identify inadequacies and highlight the academia-policy gap in corruption studies.
The project will result in academic publications, interactive analytical and research commons – like comparative law repositories such as EU compass, European Transparency Index and Follow the Money search engines across newly interconnected databases. All data will be displayed transparently online as a Data Hub and will offer end users the same research and analysis tools as the project researchers, inviting crowd-sourcing and offering online tutorials.
