24 March 2020

SODAS-project to study social networks by using data from mobile payment transactions

FUNDING

SODAS researchers David Dreyer Lassen and Sune Lehmann have received DKK 19.7 million from VILLUM FONDEN for their project 'Nation-scale social networks'. Using population data and data about mobile payment transactions, they will study how social networks can be used to understand variations in living standards, education, crime and employment

Mobile payment. Photo: Colourbox
Using population data and data about mobile payment transactions, the project will study how social networks can be used to understand variations in living standards, education, crime and employment. Photo: Colourbox

The grant is part of VILLUM FONDENs new program to support interdisciplinary data-driven science: Villum Synergy. DTU Compute and Statistics Denmark are also part of the project.

- We are very happy to have the opportunity to pursue radically interdisciplinary ideas in the area lying between data science and social sciences. DTU Compute and SODAS, and Social Sciences at UCPH in general, have worked together for many years. This grant, which also involves Statistics Denmark, allows us to take the best elements from the, at times challenging, interdisciplinary work and use it to push the research agenda in yet another direction, says David Dreyer Lassen, Professor in Economics and Director of SODAS (Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science), UCPH Faculty of Social Sciences.

‘Nation-scale social networks’ is one of the inaugural recipients of the grants involved in VILLUM FONDEN’s new program to support interdisciplinary data-driven research. In total, two full projects and six initiation projects share DKK 52.5 million. The projects incorporate computer science with fields such as technology, natural sciences, economics and communication. 

- We created Villum Synergy in recognition of the enormous potential of promoting the research opportunities here in Denmark that arise when computer science is coupled with other disciplines. This type of interdisciplinary collaboration can lead us to ground-breaking results, says Thomas Bjørnholm, Executive Chief Science Officer of VILLUM FONDEN.

Read more about the other Synergy projects and VILLUM FONDEN on the funding website.

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