Digital Datathon From Data to Insight
Exploring Economic, Structural, and Social Indicators through DataSphere


Time & Location
11 Feb 2026, 21:00 – 13 Feb 2026, 06:00
University of Naples Federico II, C.so Umberto I, 40, 80138 Napoli NA, Italy
About the event
Registration & Info
Team registration: by 11 February 2026
contact: maria.iannario@unina.it
PROGRAMME
11 February 2026
12:30 — Opening and Datathon Introduction
Maria Iannario, University of Naples Federico II
Claudia Tarantola, University of Milan
Key Talk
Alessia Paccagnini, University College Dublin
Female leadership in macroeconomics is crucial to understanding how diversity and inclusiveness can shape major financial and economic decisions. Whereas the macroeconomics leadership was largely male-dominated during earlier years, women's leadership has been on a positive upward curve in recent years. Since such a change is relatively new, evidence remains scanty and largely concentrates on how women leaders lead under uncertainty and crisis time - a period when their leadership styles can be seen and exhausted most regularly. Recent research has examined the impact of women in key leadership roles, in politics, central banks, financial regulators, and corporate boards, and how their presence has influenced and shaped uncertainty and macroeconomic crisis management. The role of female leadership can be explored through the prism of the glass ceiling, an assumption that there is a glass ceiling preventing the career growth of women, and the glass cliff, a situation in which underrepresented groups are assigned leadership positions in times of crisis to ensure a higher chance of failure. Nowadays, women hold a small share of top leadership roles globally— only 11% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 15% of the highest government positions, and 16% of senior roles in central banks. (link to slides: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7427337106693394432/
Closing Session
Albulena Shala, Universiteti i Prishtinës — Data Presentation
DataSphere: A Comprehensive Database of Economic, Structural, and Social Indicators in Kosovo
About the Datathon
Teams will work with DataSphere, a comprehensive database of economic, structural, and social indicators, to develop analyses and propose data-driven insights and solutions.
Publication Opportunity
The final report will be developed into a publication opportunity for the Management & Marketing Journal (Springer Nature).
Special Issue Title: Data-Driven Insights for Economic Development and Social Impact: Evidence from Complex Socio-Economic Systems
Who can participate: Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD students (teams can be mixed).
Team size: 3–5 participants.
Timeline
11 Feb 2026: Online kick-off (Teams link above)
12 Feb 2026: Datasets released to all teams
15 Apr 2026: Application deadline for the Datathon
2 July 2026: Report submission
9 Sept 2026 (16:00): Final event, team pitches, awards ceremony, and closing get-together (with catering)
Jury Members
Joerg Osterrieder - University of Twente, The Netherlands
Daniel Traian Pele - Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Codruța Mare - Babeș -Bolyai University, Romania
Belma Öztürkkal - Kadir Has University, Türkiye
Alessandra Tanda - University of Pavia, Italy
Rezarta Perri - University of Tirana, Albania
Alessia Paccagnini - University College Dublin, Ireland
Vlora Berisha -University of Peja “Haxhi Zeka”
Organizers
Maria Iannario (University of Naples Federico II)
Claudia Tarantola (University of Milan)
Albulena Shala (Universiteti i Prishtinës)
Sponsors & Industry Partners
Supported within Erasmus+ KA171 and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) DIGITAL project.


