---
title: Where does Berlin spend its ERDF benefits?
date: 2023-06-12
authors: ['João Demenech']
---

In this data-driven story, let's analyze how the city of Berlin benefited from ERDF from 2008 to 2015.

## What is ERDF?

If you're not familiar with ERDF, it's the European Regional Development Fund. According to its [official website](https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funding/erdf_en):

> The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to strengthen economic, social, and territorial cohesion in the European Union by correcting imbalances between its regions. In 2021-2027 it will enable investments in a smarter, greener, more connected, and more social Europe that is closer to its citizens.

## A look into the data

The dataset that will be used is this one: https://www.openspending.org/@os-data/de3-berlin-2007-2013-erdf (if you're looking for ERDF data for other cities/regions, take a look at the data catalog).

Here's a sample of this data:

<FlatUiTable url="https://storage.openspending.org/de3-berlin-2007-2013-erdf/concat.csv" />

Note that we will only use the rows where the "amount_kind" column is set to "total_amount".

## How has the total amount changed over the years?

The line chart below shows the sum of the total amount of EUR that was approved for each year:

<LineChart data="https://storage.openspending.org/de3-berlin-2007-2013-erdf/berlin-erdf-2007-2013-total-amount-apporved-per-year.csv" xAxis="approval_year" yAxis="total_amount" />

As you can see, the total increased significantly from 2007 to 2010, later fluctuating between €7 million and €9 million per year.

## Who were the top beneficiaries for each year?

Now, let's try to understand who were the top beneficiaries each year. To do that, let's filter the data to show only the two top beneficiaries for each year:

<FlatUiTable url="https://storage.openspending.org/de3-berlin-2007-2013-erdf/berlin-erdf-2007-2013-total-amount-approved-per-year-per-beneficiary--top-2.csv" />

Since there are many years in this range, let's split this analysis into two ranges: one for 2008-2010 and the other for 2011-2015.

<VegaLite spec={{
  "data": { "url": "https://storage.openspending.org/de3-berlin-2007-2013-erdf/berlin-erdf-2007-2013-total-amount-approved-per-year-per-beneficiary--top-2.csv"},
  "transform": [
    {"filter": "datum.approval_year <= 2010"},
  ],
  "title": "Total Amount (EUR) x Approval Year (2007-2010)",
  "width": "container",
  "mark": {"type": "bar", "tooltip": true },
  "encoding": {
    "y": {
      "aggregate": "sum",
      "field": "total_amount",
      "title": "Total Amount (EUR)",
      "stack": null
    },
    "x": {"field": "approval_year", "title": "Approval Year"},
    "color": {
      "type": "nominal",
      "field": "beneficiary_name",
    }
  }
}} />

<VegaLite spec={{
  "title": "Total Amount (EUR) x Approval Year (2011-2013)",
  "data": { "url": "https://storage.openspending.org/de3-berlin-2007-2013-erdf/berlin-erdf-2007-2013-total-amount-approved-per-year-per-beneficiary--top-2.csv"},
  "transform": [
    {"filter": "datum.approval_year > 2010"},
  ],
  "width": "container",
  "mark": {"type": "bar", "tooltip": true },
  "encoding": {
    "y": {
      "aggregate": "sum",
      "field": "total_amount",
      "title": "Total Amount (EUR)",
      "stack": null
    },
    "x": {"field": "approval_year", "title": "Approval Year"},
    "color": {
      "type": "nominal",
      "field": "beneficiary_name",
    }
  }
}} />

It's easy to spot some repeating colors. Now, let's see to which sector the top beneficiaries belong to:

<Table csv="
Beneficiary,Sector
D & B,Education
Stiftung Sozialpädagogisches Institut Berlin (SPI),Education/Social work
IB e.V.,Social work
gsub-Projektegesellschaft mbH,Consulting
BBW Berufsvorbereitungs-u.Ausbildungsgesellschaft,Education
Arbeit und Bildung e.V.,Consulting
Gesellschaft für soziale Unternehmensberatung  GSUB,Consulting
SPI Consult GmbH,Consulting
Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin,Education
TU Berlin, Fakultät II,Education
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin,Education
WeTeK gGmbH,Education
" />

Based on the sectors of the top beneficiaries, it's clear that education and professional training have been a major focus of ERDF investment in Berlin during that period of time.