Collaborations
Throughout the years, PLANET-NL has contributed to and collaborated on multiple projects in the Netherlands and internationally that leverage large-scale network data, advancing both methodological innovation and applied social research.
We bring together researchers, public organizations, and innovative partners to unlock the power of population-scale social networks. Our collaborations reveal how relationships shape everything from urban life and family structures to inequality, integration, and epidemic spread. By combining cutting-edge data science with socially relevant questions, we create research that advances both science and society.
Have an idea for a collaboration? Let's start the conversation at info@planetnl.org.
Mapping the social heartbeat of Amsterdam with City Network Science
A city is more than streets and buildings. It is a network of human connections.
Through the City Network Science Lab, PLANET-NL and the City of Amsterdam are uncovering the invisible social networks that shape urban communities. From integration and belonging to inequality and political participation, our research reveals how relationships influence life across neighborhoods and generations. The insights generated by the lab help policymakers better understand the social dynamics of a rapidly changing city and build stronger, more connected communities. Watch the video to learn more about the work of the lab:
From family trees to family networks with Vera de Bel
Families are becoming more complex, connected, and diverse than ever before.
Together with Vera de Bel (University of Groningen), PLANET-NL studies the family layer of the social network to understand how kinship evolves across generations. By examining relationships such as step-grandparenthood that emerge after parental separation and family recomposition, this research sheds light on how modern family structures reshape social connections, care, and support networks over time.
Vera's work has led to the following publications:
de Bel, V., Bokányi, E., Hank, K., & Leopold, T. (2025). A parallel kinship universe? A replication of Kolk et al. (2023) with Dutch register data on kinship networks. Demographic Research, 52, 915–938. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2025.52.28
de Bel, V. (2026). Too much for the Dutch? How the Dutch baby boom affected kinship size in 2018. N-IUSSP. https://www.niussp.org/family-and-households/too-much-for-the-dutch-how-the-dutch-baby-boom-affected-kinship-size-in-2018/
Bras, H., & de Bel, V. (2025). The end of endogamy? Two centuries of kin marriage in The Netherlands (1812-2021). Quaderni Storici, (1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1408/119356
Epidemic spread modeling with Kieran Marray
Epidemics spread through networks. So can solutions.
As part of his PhD research at the Tinbergen Institute, Kieran Marray (supervised by, among others, Michael Konig from VU Amsterdam) used PLANET-NL's population-scale social network infrastructure to explore how patterns of social connectivity influence the spread of infectious diseases. Combining geographically aggregated network data with regional COVID-19 infection records, he evaluated alternative network rewiring strategies to identify pathways toward more effective disease mitigation. Beyond its scientific contributions, the collaboration exemplified research-driven infrastructure development: insights gained through the continuous use and development of the mlnlib software package strengthened both the research itself and the analytical tools underpinning population-scale network science.
The project resulted in a paper that is currently available as a preprint:
O. Candogan, M. König, K. Marray and F.W. Takes, Network rewiring and spatial targeting: Optimal disease mitigation in multilayer social networks, BFI Working paper series UChicago, SSRN preprint 5106505, 2025. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5106505