Science is affected by local interaction: Participants tend to cooperate with their neighborhood, where neighborhood can refer both to regional nearness and proximity in other dimensions. The goal of the BMBF research project REGIO is to accomplish a better understanding of the impact of geographical and thematic proximity on the creation and success of interaction in science and R&D. The leading hypothesis is that the occurrence of research associations and successful regional innovation clusters implies the cumulation of scientific expertise in a geographical region. Which attributes and constellations of protagonists contribute to the occurrence and success of cooperations?

Firstly, a set of new bibliometric indicators will be developed to identify outstanding participants in geographical and regional clusters. Secondly, hypotheses about the impact of spatial and thematic proximity on successful cooperations will be modeled. Thirdly, the hypotheses will be evaluated using the Hyptrails approach of machine learning. Fourthly, new methods for the extraction of suitable indicators for regional competency and interaction from websites and social media will be developed and their value for the description and prediction of new scientific fields and innovation clusters will be investigated.