What is our method?

Based on our model, we carry out our research in three steps:

First step: Information gathering

For each of our over 100 attributes, we are gathering information and data in two consecutive steps.
1. Desk research: We read studies, research papers and articles by by organizations and institutions from around the world and especially within the county we are investigating.

2. Experts interview: We interview experts from each cluster from our subject country. Our experts are chosen based on interesting research and knowledge of their field. A gender balance in our group of experts is highly important for us.

Second step: Research analysis coding within each thematic field

In the second step of our research, we analyze the information we gathered during the desk research and the expert interviews by using an evaluation grid.

There are a total of five rating levels:

4 points = very high potential
3 points = high potential
2 points = medium potential
1 point = little potential
0 points = no potential

With 25 thematic fields we have a maximum total of 100 points for each country.

To carry out the coding, we use an evaluation grid. It contains coding rules with concrete criteria for each topic, on the basis of which the research results are evaluated. The evaluation grids for all thematic fields are public and can be viewed in the download section at the bottom of this article. 

Third step: Scoring

The final result is a score for every thematic field (maximum 20 points for every field) and an overall score which is the sum of all five thematic fields (maximum 100 points).