A global map of science according to a topic model of EU grants

Since their appearance in the 1980s, global maps of science have proved useful to locate the relative position of topics and organisations in large scientific landscapes, providing strategic information for portfolio analyses in science policy. At this global level (global meaning here ‘all disciplines’), these maps have been based on publications and have mostly used citations to build the relationship between scientific fields. Here, we present a comprehensive scientific map based on grant data that uses semantic analyses (BERT-based topic modelling) to provide the overall landscape of science based on grant data from the European Union since 2003 (since the 6th framework programme). We find a disciplinary structure which is consistent with the circular shape of publication and citation based global science maps. However, this grant map shows a much larger presence of applied science and mission-oriented research, such as engineering and sustainability sciences. We provide examples of how this landscape can be used as a baseline to explore the specialisation of territories (regions), organisations (universities) and funding programmes.