FALCON research project

Understanding and
fighting corruption

by joining forces of law enforcement
practitioners, social scientists, and
experts in data analysis and AI

FALCON (Fight Against Large-scale Corruption and Organised Crime Networks)

is a three-year Horizon Europe research project in the field of anti-corruption. It will address the significant challenges of the global fight against corruption by developing new, data-driven indicators and tools. FALCON was started in September 2023 and follows an evidence-based, multi-actor and interdisciplinary approach.

A comprehensive approach: The scope of FALCON

Social
Sciences

We conduct an evidence-based analysis of the corruption landscape, informed by the social sciences.

Big Data

We gather data from heterogeneous sources into a common model and build the software to analyze it.

Information
Extraction

Based on this data and AI methods, we develop tools for risk assessment, investigation and decision support.

Practical
Application

We cooperate closely with practitioners through co-design workshops, pilot implementation tests and newly developed training measures.

Trust-
worthiness

We pay special attention to ethical and legal aspects such as trustworthiness of AI components or privacy and data protection.

(Political)
Impact

We issue policy briefings, communicate and disseminate FALCON’s results to all stakeholders, and pursue targeted exploitation activities.

Project structure: Our work packages »

FALCON News News archive »

FALCON Policy Brief: Recommendations for Combatting Border Corruption

2026-03-19

borders, undermining security, trust, and governance. The FALCON project has released its fourth policy brief, outlining actionable recommendations to combat border corruption. These recommendations aim to inform EU policymakers and officials involved in shaping legislation and policy initiatives to strengthen border integrity.

EVENTS

March 24, 2026

Corruption 2.0, 3.0, 4.0… what’s next?
FALCON webinar, online

April 15-16, 2026

RISE-SD 2026 Conference
Varna, Bulgaria (Website)

April 21–22, 2026

7th FALCON plenary meeting
Thessaloniki, Greece

July 6–10, 2026

FALCON 3rd pilot and Final Event
Vilnius, Lithuania

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Actual corruption phenomena: Pilot use cases

Use Case 1:
Early detection of public corruption and public procurement fraud

FALCON will offer an interactive analytics dashboard giving access to data and valid corruption risk indicators, which can support both investigation and intelligence activities. Additional features further enhance the investigative potential. FALCON can also combine public procurement data (e.g., from opentender.eu) with company data, which can yield new and high-accuracy risk indicators. Key novelty is the combination of different, large-scale data sources, advanced methods and tailored risk indicators in the same analytics dashboard, thus providing a holistic approach for law enforcement to counter corruption crimes.

Use Case 2:
Tracing of sanction circumvention schemes and assets owned by 'kleptocrats'/oligarchs

FALCON will create a powerful analytics dashboard giving LEAs access via APIs to multiple processed data sources, that will facilitate their investigation process and intelligence collection. Tasked LEAs can access structured company ownership information and registries to establish ownership links and transfers. Also, FALCON will enable LEAs to map real-estate property and trace ownership transfers/transactions and can support the identification of vessels and tracing any actions undertaken by individuals to circumvent their sanctions/freeze these vessels.

Use Case 3:
Tracking and investigating corruption schemes in border control points

FALCON can support a solution able to show the probability of a corruption case (e. g. bribery linked to cigarette smuggling) in a traffic light principle during the “car-crosses-border” process. By comparing features across datasets, a relation to factors that indicate a high potential for a corruption case could be detected. Additionally, FALCON can offer a visual recognition tool based on artificial neural networks (Deep CNNs), which would be able to identify the same car, while looking for unique features across cars. Through this UC and by using state-of-the-art AI and ML technologies for data, text, pictures, videos analysis and recognitions can lead to less time wasted for border guards.

Use Case 4:
Tracing conflicts of interest and asset self-declarations of politically exposed persons

FALCON will provide access to linked data such as: company and corporate data, procurement data, lists of political office holders and PEPs, and when possible: asset and interest declarations and other potential links. FALCON will bring together large-scale datasets crucial for tracing potential conflicts of interest and how connections bias public procurement. Finally, FALCON will offer a comprehensive and reliable assessment of corruption risks, not only flagging likely conflict of interest but also its likely abuse for gaining favoured treatment in public procurement.

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