ERES Evolution and Development of Topical Areas

On the occasion of the present annual conference in Delft as well as the preceding 23 meetings, a wealth of contributions has been continually produced. ERES is aiming to deliver contributions to the health and quality of European real estate research. However, changes over time have gradually taken place. Already 2003 Alistair Adair took stock of the first ERES-decade and his survey both identified/quantified the following areas:Education and ResearchIT and Real EstateInternational Markets and Application of TechniqueEnvironment and BuildingsCRE/Use and OccupationPlanning, Development and RegenerationValuationHousing Policy and EconomicsMarket AnalysisFinance and InvestmentIn the meanwhile, another decade has been completed and since 2012 the submission and handling of entries to the annual conference was handled via the "confvienna" tool as ERES experienced a significant degree of growth. Conference hosts are facing a growing number of submissions and are in need for a digital support to group/assemble these into meaningful sessions. This activity is preceded by the ongoing identification of topical areas. In the end, up to eight parallel tracks are offered, and this with a complimentary composition arrangement regarding the content. Nonetheless, any participant will be able to attend only a fraction of the whole offer. For this reason the ERES Digital Library was set-up and maintained, allowing to browse all previously recorded submissions.This contribution will examine the submission data (over 2000 entries!) from the past six years. We will use text mining techniques to extract thematic areas and to cluster the submissions by these area. Over the years we expect to find changes in the weights of the areas. Beside the display of novel areas also trends will be illustrated, aiming to crystallize emerging research topics.On top of this, the geographical distribution of the involved authorship will be elaborated upon. This submission will end up with an outlook regarding neglected areas and discuss challenges.