On January 28, 2025, the inaugural session of "Anticorruption in Progress—BridgeGap Talk Series" was successfully held in Università LUISS Guido Carli. It fruitfully brought together experts from the BridgeGap project to discuss challenges and advancements in the fight against corruption. Through these discussions, BridgeGap fostered collaboration and shared innovative research and tools to combat corruption effectively.

By organizing this “BridgeGap Talk Series,” the project is aming to create a platform for continuous dialogue and knowledge exchange, contributing to the development and implementation of effective anticorruption policies worldwide.

The event was held in a hybrid format, allowing participants from various regions to join and contribute to the conversation. Interested individuals had the opportunity to register and participate in this insightful event.

The first talk featured a presentation and discussion of the study “Measurements of Construction-Based Corruption with Satellite Data” by Saverio Di Giorno (University of Pisa), Joras Ferwerda (Utrecht University), and Francesco Busato (Parthenope University of Naples). The paper introduced a novel measure for detecting construction-based corruption across 54,091 municipalities in nine EU countries. Utilizing satellite data, the study identified extreme urban land consumption as an indicator of potential corruption, with residual regression patterns revealing land use not justified by genuine needs.

Attendees engaged with the speakers during a Q&A session, fostering an interactive and informative experience.

It is possible to watch the inaugural session in the link below:

https://corruptiondata.eu/events/anticorruption-in-progress-bridgegap-talk-series-1/