The goal of the Zukunftskolleg mentorship project is the implementation and refinement of temporal exponential random graph models (TERGM) in the statistical computing environment R. TERGMs are statistical network models for the analysis of data with cross-sectional dependence across observational units as well as cross-temporal dependence between and across units between sampling time points. For example, these statistical models can be employed to explain things like cosponsorship networks of bills in a parliament, the emergence of international alliances or conflicts, the evolution of friendship networks, or the information exchange patterns of interest groups in policy networks. The models are implemented in an R package called xergm. The mentor is Prof. Skyler Cranmer (Ohio State University, USA).
