Category Archives: Accolade

Funding for bicycle network analysis by the Danish Ministry of Transport

Today we received the happy news that the Danish Ministry of Transport is funding our project Netværksanalyse af den danske cykelinfrastruktur (“Network analysis of the Danish cycling infrastructure”): https://www.trm.dk/nyheder/2021/aftale-om-nye-cykelstier-i-alle-dele-af-landet/

This funding will allow us to hire cycling network and urban planning/spatial data expert Ane Rahbek Vierø for a 3-year PhD on the topic, to start Jan 2022, supervised by Michael Szell. Our bicycle network research so far has focused on urban bicycle networks, so this funding will finally allow us to widen our perspective to the regional and national scale. We are looking forward to welcoming Ane in January and to help improving the (already quite good but certainly not perfect) Danish bicycle network!

In more detail, our plans for this project are the following:

In this research project we will apply state of the art metrics and tools from network analysis on Danish open data bicycle infrastructure networks collected from e.g. OpenStreetMap, and additionally incorporate knowledge from cycling planners and mobility researchers, to develop a scientific, evidence-based framework to suggest where to add new network connections or other interventions for improving sustainable bicycle infrastructure. While there are generally good cycling conditions in Denmark, there are many areas that have a quite poor connectivity. Using access to everyday amenities as a baseline can also show that it is not enough to install bicycle lanes – they need to be in the right location and connect to the right places. This research will explore weighting the network according to different attributes to get a more detailed understanding of how connectivity and accessibility might vary for different types of cyclists (in line with Levels of Traffic Stress). We will also use this weighted network to examine cyclists’ access to everyday amenities and facilities, in order to, for example, identify areas where you cannot comfortably cycle to basic amenities (inspired by the 15-minute city). Further, we will explore the effect of high stress intersections on network connectivity for vulnerable road user demographics such as children, and incorporate the distribution of people and workplaces in the analysis. Finally, we aim to develop an interactive web mapping tool that visualizes the results and has the ability to run analyses based on individual demographic variables or preferences of cyclists.

Roberta Sinatra receives YSA award

Today Roberta Sinatra received the 2020 Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics!

The Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics is given once a year. It pursues the goal of promoting the work of young researchers and recognizing outstanding scientific contributions that use methods derived from physics to contribute to a better understanding of socio-economic problems.

The award committee has decided to award the prize shared to:

Dr. Roberta Sinatra,

for her outstanding contributions to understanding the social dynamics of science, human mobility and behaviour, on the grounds of network science and statistical physics methods,

AND

Dr. Manlio de Domenico,

for his outstanding and insightful work on multilayer networks and their applications to the field of socio-economic systems.

🎉We congratulate the two recipients! 🎉

Prominent media coverage of our Nature paper

Our recently published, NERDS-involved Nature paper “The universal visitation law of human mobility” has received some prominent, international media coverage in the last month. Here a selection of news articles that explain the paper’s findings and implications:


Une loi universelle régit la fréquentation des villes

Die Vorhersagbarkeit menschlicher Bewegungsmuster


Das Universalgesetz der Straße

Door gegevens van mobiele telefoons weten we nu: stedelingen reizen niet vaak naar andere stadsdelen

Há um padrão universal na forma como as pessoas viajam nas cidades

Universelles Muster menschlicher Mobilität entdeckt

Roberta Sinatra wins Villum Young Investigators grant

Roberta Sinatra was one of the 19 recipients of this year’s Villum Young Investigators grant!

The Villum Young Investigator programme (YIP) focuses on attracting and retaining talented young Danish and international researchers at Danish universities. The aim is to support the development of high-level international research environments in the universities.

Roberta’s winning proposal was awarded with DKK 6M:
Bias Explained: Pushing Algorithmic Fairness with Models and Experiments 

Algorithms for ranking scientific information have an issue: they use citations, which are ingrained with human biases. Therefore, their output is also biased, creating inequalities and raising concerns of discrimination. This project aims to uncover the mathematical bias mechanisms that drive different citation trajectories given same quality, and to use them for creating fair algorithms.

We are overwhelmed with joy for Roberta’s success, and are looking forward to her future groundbreaking research. The grant will allow the recruitment of one PhD student and two postdocs – so stay tuned for upcoming job calls.

Link: https://veluxfoundations.dk/en/19-new-villum-young-investigators-in-2021

Roberta Sinatra receives CSS award

Today Roberta Sinatra received this year’s Complex Systems Society Junior Scientific Award!

The award was given for Roberta’s

pioneer contributions to the science of science and success, having had an impact in multiple fields, from network science to computational social science and scientometrics

The award is given once a year to two young CSS researchers, aimed at recognizing extraordinary scientific achievements: https://cssociety.org/community/css-awards

Roberta Sinatra presented at Prix Monte-Carlo Femme de l’Année

NERDS member Roberta Sinatra has returned from Monte Carlo, where she presented her research in an inspiring keynote talk for the yearly Prix Monte-Carlo Femme de l’Année. The theme of this year’s edition of the accompanying Women For Women (W4W) conference was Arts & Science, to which Roberta’s recent research on the scientific quantification of success in art fit perfectly. The conference was held in a very special place: the headquarters of Monaco’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The talk and its consequent discussions were well-received by the mainly female audience, and by The Prix’ illustrious patrons such as Walgreens Boots Alliance COO Ornella Barbara or the reigning monarch of Monaco, Prince Albert II.

For more information see: this Monegasque media report