Community Structure and Topical Differentiation in European RTD Collaborations

TL;DR

This paper analyzes European R&D collaborations using bipartite network modularity to identify communities that are topically differentiated, revealing structured research partnerships.

Contribution

It introduces an adapted bipartite modularity measure and applies it to uncover community structures in EU research collaborations.

Findings

Communities are topically differentiated.

Bipartite modularity effectively identifies research communities.

Research collaborations form structured, topic-specific groups.

Abstract

We investigate research and development collaborations under the EU Framework Programs (FPs) for Research and Technological Development. The collaborations in the FPs give rise to bipartite networks, with edges existing between projects and the organizations taking part in them. A version of the modularity measure, adapted to bipartite networks, is presented. Communities are found so as to maximize the bipartite modularity. Projects in the resulting communities are shown to be topically differentiated.