Complex networks and public funding: the case of the 2007-2013 Italian program

TL;DR

This paper applies complex network analysis to Italian public funding data from 2007-2013, providing new insights into program evaluation and socio-economic impacts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of complex network techniques to analyze public funding programs and their socio-economic implications.

Findings

Network analysis reveals key indicators for program evaluation

New perspectives on socio-economic impact of funding programs

Methodology can be applied to other public funding datasets

Abstract

In this paper we apply techniques of complex network analysis to data sources representing public funding programs and discuss the importance of the considered indicators for program evaluation. Starting from the Open Data repository of the 2007-2013 Italian Program Programma Operativo Nazionale 'Ricerca e Competitivit\`a' (PON R&C), we build a set of data models and perform network analysis over them. We discuss the obtained experimental results outlining interesting new perspectives that emerge from the application of the proposed methods to the socio-economical evaluation of funded programs.