Deploying a Strategy to Unlock Big Data Research and Teaching Activities in the West Balkan Region

Big Data Analytics is a crucial component of the Big Data paradigm and deals with the extraction of knowledge from the enormous amount of data. As the number of Big Data related methods, tools, frameworks, and solutions is growing, there is a need to systematize the knowledge about the domain. Moreover, as this domain is rapidly involving, it is difficult to keep up to date with its latest and most efficient technologies; and this is thereby especially challenging for countries which have so far suffered from a lack of infrastructure in Big Data. In this article, we report on the deployment of a strategy we design, fostering the knowledge and awareness around the challenges of Big Data analytics in the West Balkan region. In particular, we describe how we joined forces across multiple European institutions in order to design bespoke actions (from, e.g. classes, to student exchanges) to be applied in Serbia and the West Balkan region over several years.