Project “DEMOREG-EU” is implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021–2026 and is financed by European Union funds through the NextGenerationEU instrument.
The DEMOREG-EU project research team held its first project meeting on January 26, 2026. In addition to agreeing on the roadmap for key activities during the first year of implementation, the team formed two working groups based on the project's thematic areas: a working group focused on researching regional development factors in Croatia and the European Union, and a working group dedicated to analyzing the impact of contemporary demographic processes on the convergence of EU economies.
A plan for professional development and conference participation covering the entire four-year project duration was also agreed upon, including a minimum of two summer schools and seven conference presentations over the course of the project.
Published: 24.09.2026.
As part of strengthening the team's research competencies, assistant Marta Nimac participated in the Barcelona Summer School of Demography (BSSD), organized by the Center for Demographic Studies (CED) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She attended two modules dedicated to the statistical language R:
– Module 1 – An introduction to R (29.6.–3.7.2026), lecturer Sergi Trias Llimós (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) — basics of working in the R/RStudio environment, data processing, introduction to visualization with the ggplot2 package and writing functions.
– Module 2 – Demography with R (6–10/7/2026), lecturer Tim Riffe (University of the Basque Country) — demographic measures, Lexis diagram, mortality tables, rate decomposition (Kitagawa, Arriaga) and introduction to population projections, including the Lee-Carter model.
The acquired knowledge is directly applicable to the work of the working group, especially in the part related to the processing of demographic microdata and the modeling of population projections.
Published: 24.09.2026.
During the first year of the DEMOREG-EU project, the team acquired relevant literature and some of the IT equipment—specifically, high-performance laptops and desktop computers—needed to work with large microdata sets. The team also secured access to key databases required to analyze regional development and economic convergence within the EU, including microdata from longitudinal studies such as the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), SHARE, and the European Social Survey (ESS).
This infrastructure serves as the foundation for developing a set of key indicators to analyze the demographic factors influencing regional development and the convergence of European economies; these indicators will be made publicly available in aggregated form on the project website. The research team continues to employ advanced methods to analyze the links between demographic and economic trends across European regions.
Published: 28.09.2026.
Having successfully completed the first year of implementation -marked by milestones such as the launch of the project website, the acquisition of research equipment, literature, and databases, and a team member's participation in an international summer school - the DEMOREG-EU research team is preparing for the second year of the project.
The focus of the second year will be on further developing the set of indicators for regional development and convergence, a team member's participation in a summer school focused on analyzing EU economic convergence, and the initial presentation of preliminary research findings at international academic conferences, alongside the publication of research papers. The internal evaluation of project activities for the first year and the second semi-annual team meeting will take place on September 30, 2026.
Published: 28.09.2026.