Towards a New Equality of Place: Leveraging Geospatial Data for Policy Impact

How do living conditions vary on the national, regional, and local levels? Which areas have the greatest need for targeted support and development? MapineqLink is a cutting-edge online mapping tool that enables researchers, policymakers, and the wider public to visually understand and explore local inequalities in living conditions more precisely than ever before. Developed by the Mapineq team at the Universities of Groningen and Oxford, the database integrates multiple data sources, including geo-located socioeconomic, environmental, infrastructure, and health indicators from government agencies, commercial providers, and less conventional channels such as satellite images. MapineqLink provides a comprehensive and spatially granular view of inequalities in European countries and will be a unique resource for the targeting of interventions to foster equality. More information about the database and the Mapineq project can be found at: https://mapineq.eu/

The event will begin with a presentation of the data base and some illustrative applications, followed by a panel discussion on the importance of high-quality data for informing research, policy making, and public debate and on how to improve data infrastructures on a European level and beyond.

Join us in person or online to explore how Mapineq Link can enhance our efforts to address inequality locally and beyond.

Agenda: 

17:00 - 17:10 - Welcome & Overview of Mapineq Link and Its Purpose

• Melinda Mills, Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Professor of Demography and Population Health at Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford, and Founder of Data4Science. She is also a Professor of Data Science & Public Health Policy, Department of Economics, Econometrics & Finance at the University of Groningen & Department of Genetics, UMCG, the Netherlands. 

17:10 - 17:20 - Walk through of Mapineq Link Features and Capabilities

• Douglas Leasure, Senior Researcher and Data Scientist at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford.

17:20 - 18:00 - Closing Panel: Expert Insights and Q&A

• Bastian Alm, Head of Division Regional Economic and Structural Policy, Joint Scheme for the Improvement of Regional Economic Structures, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. 
• Nicola Brandt, Head of OECD Berlin Center. 
• Paul Gellert, Co-Director of the Einstein Center Population Diversity and Associate Professor at the Institute of Medical Sociology and Rehabilitation Science, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

• Melinda Mills, Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Professor of Demography and Population Health at Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford, and Founder of Data4Science. She is also a Professor of Data Science & Public Health Policy, Department of Economics, Econometrics & Finance at the University of Groningen & Department of Genetics, UMCG, the Netherlands. 

18:00 - Reception

This event is partially funded by the Mapineq project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 101061645 (www.mapineq.eu).