Project description
Border change impact on local development in Europe
Borders do more than divide. They transform. Since 1815, redrawn frontiers from wars and unions have reshaped towns, trade, and lives. But how deeply? The ERC-backed BORDERS project aims to find out. By combining economic history, geography, and AI, researchers will digitise historic maps and track over 200 border changes across Europe and beyond. They will link those shifts to local demographics and commerce, revealing how borders have influenced opportunity, identity, and regional growth. The result is a fresh perspective on how past lines on a map continue to affect communities today.
Objective
Border changes through secession, unification, and territorial transfers have reshaped almost all states in Europe since 1815 and revisionism continues to threaten states worldwide until today. While the causes of border change are well-studied, its consequences for local development have been much less scrutinized. BORDERS therefore analyzes the mechanisms through which border change has affected local development in Europe and beyond over the past two centuries using new theory, data, and methods.
BORDERS’ central contributions are delivered by four work packages (WP). WP1 develops a theory of the impact of border change on socio-economic development through changes in local ethnic demography, economic market exchange, state capacity, and ethnic politics. WP2 produces unparalleled longitudinal data on local development across Europe since the 18th century by using machine learning to measure village-level development from historical survey maps. Additional data from historical administrative and geographic sources will be collected to capture the relevant causal mechanisms. WP3 empirically examines the theory and mechanisms developed in WP1 across the more than 200 border changes in post-1815 Europe using methods for causal inference in geographically disaggregated panel data. WP4 tests the applicability of the theory across a global sample of border changes since 1945, examines contextual factors that explain variation over time and across cases, and investigates divergences with effects observed in historical Europe.
In times of renewed border contestation, BORDERS contributes new theory and robust evidence on the local effects of border change in Europe and beyond. The project enriches debates on long-run development and provides data on historical development in Europe of unprecedented detail. Innovations in map digitization and methods to gauge the generalizability of causally identified micro-level effects contribute to the social sciences more generally.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography
- natural sciences computer and information sciences data science data exchange
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
WC2A 2AE London
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.