Bridging the Gaps in Evidence, Regulation and Impact of Anticorruption Policies

Project Information

BRIDGEGAP

Grant agreement ID: 101132483

DOI

10.3030/101132483

EC signature date 26 October 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 5 732 238,75

EU contribution

€ 5 732 238,75

Coordinated by

THE LISBON COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS ASBL
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BRIDGEGAP (Bridging the Gaps in Evidence, Regulation and Impact of Anticorruption Policies)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BridgeGap: Bridging the Gaps in Evidence, Regulation, and Impact of Anticorruption Policies is a multidisciplinary project addressing one of the most persistent challenges to democratic governance and economic development: corruption. Its mission is to close critical knowledge and policy gaps in how corruption is measured, regulated, and countered—especially across borders and in digital environments.

The project treats corruption as a systemic policy issue, focusing on institutional vulnerabilities rather than isolated cases of misconduct. When abuse of office is not effectively deterred, corruption risks become embedded in institutions, undermining their ability to serve the public good. BridgeGap explores how domestic weaknesses and cross-border dynamics interact to erode corruption control.

The consortium includes Transparency International, academic researchers from multiple disciplines, data-driven technology organizations such as YouControl, and think tanks. This diverse expertise enables a comprehensive understanding of corruption from legal, social, economic, and technological perspectives and informs policy development.

BridgeGap develops models to track corruption across countries and over time, maps hidden networks of influence, and assesses the role of digital tools in both enabling and combating corruption. It evaluates accountability systems and anticorruption regulations across EU Member States and candidate countries to identify remaining gaps.

Project outputs include academic publications and a suite of open-access digital tools—such as comparative law repositories, European Transparency Index, and interconnected search engines. All data will be accessible through a public Data Hub, offering users the same analytical tools as the research team, alongside interactive tutorials and options for crowd-sourced collaboration.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Already in the first reporting period, BridgeGap has made progress across the project's eleven work packages, covering conceptual and methodological foundations, ethnographic and empirical investigations, policy analysis, technological innovation, and capacity-building efforts. It outlines how BridgeGap is advancing toward its four strategic objectives, while contributing to open science, policy engagement, and societal impact.

Our achievements during this first reporting period reflect the dedicated efforts and close collaboration of the 15-partner consortium from research and academia, technology providers, think tanks and policy networks and global anticorruption networks. BridgeGap partners hosted an international conference, launched the groundbreaking tools Data Hub and “Follow the Money,” engaged with policy actors, research and academia and anticorruption networks; and produced open-access publications and educational materials that are already shaping discussions at the intersection of governance, regulation, and public integrity.

We are especially proud of our commitment to Open Science and stakeholder empowerment. BridgeGap is not only producing new knowledge, it is creating public goods, accessible infrastructures, and lasting tools that equip policymakers, journalists, civil society, and citizens to take informed action against corruption.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

BridgeGap provides a global, scalable, and data-driven framework to combat corruption and enhance transparency in governance. Unlike existing efforts that remain fragmented and context-specific, it mobilizes a transnational network through Transparency International and the Open Contracting Partnership, supporting adoption in over one hundred countries. The project’s web-based tools—including enhanced RuAssets and T-Index—offer advanced analytical and investigative capabilities, while the integration of a gravity model to estimate cross-border corruption is a methodological innovation with broad policy implications.

At the EU level, BridgeGap breaks new ground by creating comparative legal repositories and benchmarks that go beyond tracking regulatory transposition, offering the first systematic evaluations of legislative impact across member states. These resources are accessible and actionable, equipped with video tutorials and user-centric design to ensure practical application.

Scientifically, BridgeGap advances the frontier with four major contributions: developing actionable corruption metrics such as cross-border measurements and the Corruption Indicators Monitoring Matrix (CIMM) in partnership with UNODC; rigorously mapping regulatory and jurisdictional gaps; empirically assessing AI tools and policies at national and sectoral levels; and generating peer-reviewed knowledge from case studies and behavioral experiments.

Economically, the project leverages AI to empower investigative journalism and public oversight, increasing transparency and trust in policymaking and public-private governance. Socially, BridgeGap fosters participatory, explainable, and fair decision-making processes, representing a paradigm shift in how anticorruption strategies are conceptualized, implemented, and evaluated globally.

BridgeGap