EXCENTRIC Methodology. Milestone 5 Report – Transversal analysis methodology and plan

EXCENTRIC is a Horizon Europe Innovation Action project that develops and tests Collaborative Data Practices (CDP) across six pilot organizations in the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI). Through real-life pilot environments, the project explores how Collaborative Data Ecosystems (CDEs) can support a human-centric digital transition and contribute to strengthened sustainability and competitiveness. A shared conceptual and methodological spine is provided by the ARCHS Initial Framework1 (Adaptive, Responsible, Collaborative, Human-Centric, Sustainable), which guides the project’s diagnostics (WP2), acceleration (WP3), tool development and embedding (WP4), and transversal analysis (WP5). This methodology establishes a shared approach to generating, analysing and integrating evidence within WP5 of the EXCENTRIC project. It specifies how insights from pilots, organisational practices, and tool development are systematically collected, analysed, and synthesised to ensure consistency while remaining sensitive to sectoral contexts. The methodology supports reflective learning within the project and ensures that empirical findings inform the accelerator process, tool development, and transferable recommendations. Specifically, this document aims to: define a systematic transversal analysis methodology for EXCENTRIC, covering network analysis and cross-pilot synthesis across ARCHS dimensions, accelerator stages and piloting activities; describe how this methodology ensures integration and cohesions across work packages, links data streams generated across different activities, and operationalize feedback loops into tool development and testing, outline a practical plan for data collection analysis and reporting over the life of the project, aligned with milestones and key events, including the initial network analysis and cross-cutting theme assessment (M24). This document provides shared methodological references for how the implementation evidence, generated across the EXCENTRIC pilots’ activities integrates with the data collected for the purposes of the Network and Transversal Analysis (WP5) of the EXCENTRIC project. It is written primarily for the EXCENTRIC partners as a shared reference for data collection and analysis, an outline of the transversal analysis methodology, and a corresponding plan. It operationalizes WP1’s objective of providing an integrated innovation and analysis framework and offers the measurement and analysis backbone for WP5, while enabling the structured data (and activities) feedback looping of the project structure. This document constitutes the Milestone 5 Report (WP1, Task T1.2) and establishes the transversal analysis methodology and plan that will be implemented under WP5 (M13-M36). It guides WP5 implementation, with the first major synthesis checkpoint at Milestone 13 (M24: initial network analysis and cross-cutting theme assessment) and final consolidation feeding into D5.1 (M36)