
LISA: A digital treasure trove for research at the crossroads of space and economics
Erasmus and TU Delft scientists have made a wealth of geospatial information about the Dutch world of business available for research. The LISA repository is freely available to students and staff at the universities of Rotterdam and Delft, opening a new landscape of possibilities for interdisciplinary research at the crossroads of space and economics.
The economy is deeply connected to the way we design urban landscapes. And with space being limited in the Netherlands, innovative solutions are essential for transitioning to a sustainable economy. To help scientists and students come up with such solutions, Erasmus and TU Delft researchers have made an interactive repository available with highly detailed spatial information about companies located in the Netherlands.
“The repository gives spatial researchers better insights into the economy, and it helps economists understand spatial relationships,” says researcher Merten Nefs from the Erasmus Centre for Urban Port & Transport Economics (UPT). “We aim to bring these two worlds closer together.”

New research possibilities
The database is a treasure trove of information about companies in the Netherlands, covering the years from 1996 to the present. Researchers can use the repository to run analyses and to create visualizations and interactive maps on various geographic levels. This opens up a whole new realm of research possibilities. “You can explore how economic activities are connected to space, with much more precision than you could with other public data sources,” Nefs explains. “For example, by combining data you can not only examine where exactly companies are located, but also which types of buildings they use.”
As one recent project examining the Dutch circular economy shows, this level of detail can be very useful. “This particular project helped the government identify where circular activities are taking place across the Netherlands. With the repository, we were able to show what requirements companies engaged in circular practices have for a location and what spatial conditions are necessary to scale up these activities.”
LISA data
The interactive repository was built using Dutch company data from LISA, a detailed employment register that Nefs often relies on. “In my own research, I’ve been using LISA data for about ten years now,” he shares. “That requires money. For every project, my colleagues and I had to find funding to be able to access LISA data. How wonderful would it be if all of our students and colleagues would also have this opportunity?”
To make this happen, Nefs applied for a Resilient Delta Kick-Starter grant together with urban economist Jeroen van Haaren (Erasmus UPT) and urban planner Karel Van den Berghe (TU Delft Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment).
A resilient economy
The repository will be freely available to students and researchers at Erasmus University and TU Delft for the next several years. “A master’s student in urban economics recently used the database for his thesis on the spatial distribution of the Dutch hospitality sector, for example, and a team of researchers in Delft are now using it for a project that looks into the textile and clothing sector.”
Nefs: “The opportunities are vast, and multiple exciting studies have already come out of it. We hope that our repository will encourage even more collaboration among colleagues and students in Delft and Rotterdam as they work together to generate important new knowledge for a resilient delta economy.”
Would you like to use a selection of the data for your research? Click here to access the dataset. For questions, please contact Merten Nefs (nefs.ese@eur.nl).