GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Research under this topic should build a solid and encompassing understanding of:

• the cross-border character of new expressions of political corruption involving a constellation of actors cutting across the political, administrative, financial and commercial spheres;
• integrity and its relationship to corruption and the requirements of effective models of integrity management, both in the public and private sectors;
• the role played by the data analytics sector in political communication to malignly influence and disrupt politics in foreign jurisdictions
• the role played by investigative journalism in strengthening accountability by revealing transnational corruption and illicit financial flows.

The role of education and media, in particular social media, and their impact on how corruption is socially constructed, perceived and dealt with in the public sphere, deserves special attention.

Proposals should look at tools to strengthen public-private partnerships for fighting corruption, including inter-institutional and inter-sectorial collaborations among different stakeholders (such as small/large enterprises mentorship), or transparent guidelines for the inclusion of interest groups in political processes. Understanding the potential use of technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, encrypted data analysis, blockchain, building information modelling…) to detect, prevent and combat corruption and other undue influences should receive particular attention, without overlooking their potential misuse. The analysis of open government experiences and dissemination of practices of civic tracking systems, as opportunities of transparency and prevention of corruption, may also contribute to the assessment of the hopes and challenges of digital anti-corruption efforts. Overall overviews of corruption within the EU are difficult and proposals should aim to overcome this shortfall.