The Basel Institute, together with the University of Basel, are joining a consortium of 25 organisations from 15 countries under the EU’s new research project, FALCON: Fight Against Large-scale Corruption and Organised Crime Networks.

The aim: to develop data, evidence and tools to support both policymakers and practitioners in the fight against corruption.

The three-year, EUR 4.7 million project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme and seeks technologically advanced solutions to address critical forms of corruption across Europe, including:

• public procurement fraud;
• circumvention of sanctions against oligarchs and kleptocrats;
• corruption schemes linked to smuggling at border crossings;
• conflicts of interest of politically exposed persons.

The consortium will collect, analyse and transform corruption data into practical software tools to support investigations, risk assessments and policy decisions.

Our research will focus on analysing in-depth case studies of prominent patterns of networked corruption – corruption facilitated by informal networks of officials, business people and others. We will also assess the EU’s legislative anti-corruption measures and policy framework.

Working across disciplines

The ambitious interdisciplinary project brings together expertise in social science and research, technology development and law enforcement, including practitioners from six EU law enforcement agencies.

Combining our diverse skills and knowledge will greatly increase our ability to develop solutions that are based on evidence (social science and research partners); leverage the cutting edge of technology (technological partners); and address the needs and wishes of the end users (law enforcement policymakers and practitioners).

We are honoured to contribute our anti-corruption expertise to the project, which fits neatly with our own interdisciplinary approach. Led by Senior Research Fellow Jacopo Costa, the effort will leverage the Basel Institute’s varied experience:

• conducting novel research into corruption and public governance and developing evidence-based interventions, especially through our Public Governance team;
• working closely with anti-corruption practitioners in law enforcement and judiciary, through our International Centre for Asset Recovery and more recently Green Corruption programme;
• seeking innovative technological solutions that respond to users’ needs and actually work in challenging contexts.

Learn more

The Basel Institute’s Claudia Baez Camargo and Jacopo Costa attended the FALCON project kick-off meeting on 20–21 September 2023 in Athens. Learn more about their work and the Public Governance team’s research areas.

The FALCON project is co-funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe programme, under grant agreement No. 101121281. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.