Extended funding and new research programme for GOVTRUST

We are excited to announce that the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence has secured extended funding through to the end of 2031!

After an intensive and highly competitive evaluation process, we are happy to once again be one of the 12 selected centres of excellence at the University of Antwerp. Building on previous work of the current GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence on trust and multi-level governance, the new GOVTRUST research programme focuses on “Trust and Distrust in the Governance of Societal Transitions”. This extension also allows us to expand our consortium in terms of disciplines and research groups and to focus on a number of new research areas. Learn more below about our focus, consortium and new research emphases.

Thank you to all our partners and supporters who have made this possible. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this exciting new chapter! We will soon announce the official launch of the new GOVTRUST research programme.

Starting point and core aim

Trust is the cornerstone of any well-functioning society. This is especially so in the face of major societal transitions, which are contested and conflictual and put increasing pressure on trust and spark distrust. The Yellow Jackets, farmers’ protest against EU nature restoration law, climate youth contestation, as well as public concerns about digital exclusion, manipulation, or about big tech data abuse, are all signals that building trust in transitions is particularly challenging. In this respect, it is essential to understand how trust is built through successful governance. Equally important is recognising that trust in itself is a fundamental prerequisite for successful governance. Therefore, and building on previous work of the current GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence on trust and multilevel governance, the new GOVTRUST research programme focuses on trust and distrust in the governance of societal transitions.

Contemporary governance of society is increasingly challenged by uncertain and disruptive transitions affecting every part of our society. The standard governance repertoire has not been able to bring about such successful transitions: for example, at several governance levels negotiations are blocked, and regulatory and policy frameworks are strongly contested, rigid, and inapt to respond to scientific advances. It is therefore crucial to rethink governance, both regarding the arrangements and processes needed to make collective decisions, and regarding the capacities and behaviours of organisational and individual actors at different levels of governance (incl. local, regional, national, EU, and international levels).

Trust is a fundamental condition for such complex governance systems to perform well. Although the literature and our own GOVTRUST research have shown that a certain degree of distrust between actors within a governance system (public, private and civil society actors) might be functional in specific instances, recurring reports of distrust point to significant problems. When trust evaporates and/or distrust rises, cooperation between these governance actors is compromised, making successful governance of societal transitions very hard to achieve. Moreover, the actual (lack of) response of governance systems to societal challenges will in turn have an impact on trust by citizens in those systems. Therefore, GOVTRUST will focus on trust and distrust in and within the governance of transitions.

GOVTRUST’s core aim is to understand and analyse the dynamics, causes and effects of trust and distrust in and within the governance of societal transitions.

Research mission of GOVTRUST

The expanded GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence integrates high-level scientific expertise (theoretical, empirical, and methodological) on trust in the governance of societal transitions across three faculties (Social Sciences, Law, and Business and Economics). It brings together a unique set of seven disciplines (political science, public administration, law, communication sciences, sociology, organisational behaviour, and learning sciences) to jointly conduct frontline interdisciplinary research on the core research aim: To understand and analyse the dynamics, causes and effects of trust and distrust in and within the governance of societal transitions. Joint work by these seven disciplines is necessary as the trustworthy governance of transitions raises crucial and interlinked legal, political, administrative, communicative, and sociological questions, as well as questions related to organisational and individual behaviour, change and learning. As such, GOVTRUST will (continue to) maximise scientific impact and the international reputation of the University of Antwerp while also having substantial societal impact.

GOVTRUST's research programme is built on four transversal research objectives (TO) that are brought together in four thematic research tracks (RT) - see figure below, each of which will generate important interdisciplinary scientific breakthroughs on trust in the governance of transitions. 

Based on these objectives and research tracks, some important new research emphases include:

• The role of uncertainty, vulnerability, and emotions in trust processes
• The temporal and spatial dimension of trust
• Creating a functional trust-distrust balance within governance systems
• Rethinking governance for societal transitions, including choosing and mixing different governance modes
• Focusing on (the interplay between) four governance dimensions that contribute to the success of transitions: arrangements and processes (1) for multi-level coordination between public actors, and (2) participation by interest groups, experts and citizens; as well as actor capacities and behaviour in terms of (3) organisational actions, collaboration and communication, and (4) individual attitudes, emotions, and interactions.
• Empirical focus on two pivotal transitions: the green and the digital transition, both posing huge trust problems and each requiring appropriate, integrated, and trustworthy governance approaches
• Continuing to use our expertise in diverse methods, including: psychophysiological and behavioural methods; longitudinal studies and analytical tools; place-based and ethnographic methods; computational methods, advanced hierarchical statistics, configurational methods, social network analysis and inferential network statistics; observation, qualitative case studies, surveys, and survey experiments; and living labs, collaborative scenario development, immersive labs, and creative methods.
• Attention for the implications for policy and society, a.o. through policy recommendations and project-related valorisation

To accomplish our research aim, the GOVTRUST consortium integrates researchers with complementary high-level expertise from seven disciplines at the University of Antwerp, uniting strong research teams from political science, public administration, law, communication sciences, sociology, organisational behaviour, and learning sciences. By expanding the existing consortium with experts from sociology, organisational behaviour, and learning sciences, the GOVTRUST consortium has all the necessary conceptual, theoretical, and methodological expertise to make ground-breaking contributions.

• Koen Verhoest | Politics and Public Governance (PPG) Research Group | As public administration scholar, Koen Verhoest brings expertise on interactions and collaboration between public and private actors at multiple levels of governance, co-creation, innovation, coordination and policy integration for environmental and digital governance, governance modes and (dis)trust. GOVTRUST will bring breakthroughs to PA, a.o. contingency factors re. state-centric vs. pluri-centric governance, role of emotions in trustworthy governance, interplay of trust-building governance, organisational & individual-level factors.
• Peter Bursens | Politics and Public Governance (PPG) Research Group | As political scientist, Peter Bursens brings in knowledge on (trust by/in) political decision-making and organised interests across multiple levels of government. Breakthroughs for political sciences will be theoretical and empirical insights in (a) how conditions of political decision-making across multiple levels (such as cooperative vs. adversarial relations) affect citizens’ trust in the governance of transitions and (b) how conditions of interest group participation (who, when and how) contribute to trustworthy governance of transitions.
• Patricia Popelier | Government and Law (G&L) Research Group | As a legal scholar specialised in constitutional law and legislative studies, Patricia Popelier brings knowledge on rule design and interpretation, constitutional principles and fundamental rights, as well as the structure of political systems and the institutional design of political systems and public institutions. Breakthroughs in the legal field will be novel approaches as to (a) rule design that stimulates innovation while retaining legal certainty in the context of transitions (e.g., goal-based regulation), (b) the organisation of state actors like legislators and (constitutional and administrative) courts so as to increase their trustworthiness in dealing with societal transitions and (c) the role of trust in how federal systems are structured, and the legal implications thereof.
• Esther van Zimmeren | Government and Law (G&L) Research Group | As a legal scholar specialised in intellectual property (IP) law and governance; economic integration and internal market; and inclusive and sustainable urban innovation, Esther van Zimmeren contributes knowledge on the institutional design and governance of (non-)state actors involved in the administration and valorisation of (intellectual) property rights and innovation (i.e. technological, social, public). Breakthroughs in the legal field will be novel approaches as to (a) how to stimulate innovation throughout the legal framework (incl. adaptive law evolution), (b) the organisation of actors (e.g. IP agencies and specialised IP courts at various governance levels) so as to increase their trustworthiness in how they deal with transitions, and (c) the legal implications of trust in the EU multi-level governance setting in policy domains linked to green and digital transition.
• Michel Walrave | Media & ICT in Organisations and Society (MIOS) Research Group | As communication sciences scholar, Michel Walrave brings knowledge on issues related to (mediated) communication strategies for earning trust in societal transitions, incl. subfields of persuasive and risk communication, as well as communication between governance actors. He adds specific expertise on digitalisation, incl. digital communication and the adoption of digital innovations. Breakthroughs will be insights into the role of formal vs. informal communication through (social) media in communicating about (digital) transitions, the role of trust, privacy and psychological factors in the adoption of digital innovations (e.g., e-health, augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications ), and how specific communication strategies can foster citizens’ trust.
• Stijn Oosterlynck | Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change (CRESC) |  As sociology scholar, he contributes knowledge on how different social groups interpret uncertainties and risks implied in societal transitions and how responses to societal transitions differ along social class, gender and ethnic-cultural lines and are dependent on the material resources and cultural capital individuals and social groups have at their disposal. He also foregrounds the role of expert knowledge, civil society and citizen participation in societal transitions. Breakthroughs to sociology will refer to the importance of the justice aspects of societal transitions in sustaining trust in public governance and the diverse rationales governing societal transitions.
• Jan Wynen | Department of Management | As organisational behaviour scholar, he brings state of the art knowledge in fostering organisational adaptability and shaping supportive attitudes at the employee/individual level, facilitating seamless and sustainable change within public and private sector organisations. Breakthroughs will be theoretical and empirical knowledge aimed at understanding how organisations can adapt and cultivate trust both internally among employees and externally with stakeholders to thrive in the face of disruptive societal transitions.
• Piet Van den Bossche | Edubron | As learning science scholar, he brings theoretical and methodological knowledge on processes of individual and collective learning and the role of emotions and stress. Breakthroughs for learning sciences will be insights in (a) how learning processes and the emergence of trust relate and (b) how these processes are moderated by episodes of urgency vs. emergency and the stress this entails (e.g. does trust function as a buffer for negative effects of stress in collective learning during periods of emergency).

The consortium continues to be coordinated by Koen Verhoest and Esther van Zimmeren, with the support of research manager Sophie Op de Beeck. 

Furthermore, we can rely on our International Scientific Advisory Board with renowned experts, which was also extended to match the new research agenda.