GOVTRUST Activities

28 Nov 2023 | Book presentation "Experimentalist Governance: From Architectures to Outcomes" by Bernardo Rangoni

On 28th of November, Bernardo Rangoni presented his latest publication, the book titled "Experimentalist Governance: From Architectures to Outcomes", for an interdisciplinary audience at the University of Antwerp. The book (a) provides a timely examination of five growingly crucial policy domains — electricity, natural gas, communications, finance, and pharmaceuticals; (b) relates to key debates in regulatory governance, itself an inter- and multi-disciplinary field stemming from law, public administration, and political science; and (c) offers a novel analytical framework that is valuable for studying the influence of non-hierarchical institutional structures on actual policy processes and policy outcomes. Find out more about the book and order here.

28-29 Sep 2023 | International Conference organised by EnTrust project

At the end of September 2023, the EU-funded EnTrust project organises an international conference on "Trust and Distrust in Governance: Exploring the Impact of Social and Political Dynamics". Hosted at the University of Siena, Italy, the conference takes up the overarching topic of trust and distrust in democratic governments and institutions and aspires to explore it in all its various dimensions and aspects. In an interactive session, the conference also brings together several current and new projects on (dis)trust. Prof. Koen Verhoest presents both the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence and the TiGRE project. During the conference, the TiGRE consortium also hosts a panel session on "Regulatory Agencies and Processes of Trust", including a paper by Koen Verhoest and Bastiaan Redert on 'Trust and interactions between stakeholders in European regulatory regimes'.

12-14 Jul 2023 | Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Regulatory Governance

The GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence was proud to host the 2023 Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Regulatory Governance, taking place 12-14 July 2023 in Antwerp (Belgium). This year's conference theme was: "Regulatory Governance in Times of Turbulence, Disruptive Technologies and Crises of Trust". The Biennial Conference is the leading interdisciplinary conference on regulation and regulatory governance in Europe, attracting researchers from all over the globe working in a wide range of disciplines. It provides an opportunity to present research in progress and to get feedback and meet both old and new friends within the field and to learn more about the cutting edge of regulatory governance research. Conference highlights included the Standing Group Award for Regulatory Studies Development for lifetime career achievement, awarded to a senior scholar who made an outstanding contribution to the field, the Giandomenico Majone Prize for the best conference paper by a junior member of the profession, as well as round tables, keynote lectures, social activities and more. The 2023 Biennial Conference also coincided with the final conference of the EU H2020 TiGRE project (Trust in Governance and Regulation in Europe) and included activities offered by TiGRE such as a keynote, a round table presenting the main project results, and a series of panels on the topic of trust in regulatory governance. Find out more about the conference here.

27 Jun 2023 | Seminar on "Administrative Law as a Network of Principles" with Anthony M. Bertelli and Silvia Cannas

On 27 June 2023, Prof. Anthony M. Bertelli (Pennsylvania State University, US and Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Spain) and dr. Silvia Cannas (IBEI, Spain) presented their work on "Administrative Law as a Network of Principles" in a lunch seminar at the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence. An abstract of their presentation: The legal basis of public administration provides it with fundamental normative principles that guide its practice. These principles, such as impartiality or transparency, are the primary formal way of connecting the normative values of a state to the practice of its public administration. How do administrative principles shape the legal structure of public administration? We develop a novel method for quantitatively measuring the importance of principles such as impartiality or transparency to national laws and apply it in the case of Italy, which has a civil law system. Our analysis proceeds in the following stages. First, we use supervised machine learning to classify each section of a law according to the administrative principles it addresses. Second, to train our classifiers, we compare initial results with human coding of text of the laws and with the expert understandings of lawyers concerning the role of administrative principles in each law in the sample. Third, we use our trained models to classify the entire Italian legal code, which constitutes more than 73,000 legal documents adopted since 1948, and we divide these documents into sections. Fourth, we then construct network-analytic measures of centrality to determine the importance of administrative principles across all areas of Italian law.

22 Mar 2023 | 8th TiGRE Consortium Meeting hosted by GOVTRUST in Antwerp

The TiGRE consortium had its 8th Consortium Meeting on 22 March 2023, hosted by GOVTRUST at the University of Antwerp! In addition to planning the final steps over the last six months in TiGRE, the consortium partners discussed how to integrate the key project results in scientific publications, policy briefs, white paper etc. in order to maximise outreach and impact of research on trust. In line with this strategy, most of the participants contributed to the video shooting which ran parallel to the scientific meeting.

5 Dec 2022 | Studium Generale - ‘Wetenschap gaat viraal’

On 5 December 2022, Walter Daelemans and Karolien Poels gave a double lecture (in Dutch) for Studium Generale in the context of this year's theme 'Wetenschap gaat viraal’ (Science goes viral).

• Prof. Walter Daelemans (UAntwerp, computer linguistics) talked about "Virale opinies over vaccinatie. Monitoring van sociale media met taaltechnologie" (Viral Opinions on Vaccination. Monitoring Social Media with Language Technology).
• Prof. Karolien Poels (UAntwerp, communication strategies) presented her work on "Vaccines won't save us, getting vaccinated does! Strategische communicatie over COVID-19 vaccins" (Vaccines won't save us, getting vaccinated does! Strategic communication on COVID-19 vaccines).

For more information and a recording of their session (all in Dutch), please see the Studium Generale website. 

17 Nov 2022 | Koen Verhoest participates in OECD Global Forum

Koen Verhoest participated as an expert in the OECD Global Forum in Luxembourg on 17 November 2022 on the theme of “Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy”. The Global Forum event was built on the existing OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative, and was underpinned by the results from the first OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions. The event was an opportunity for a strategic exchange amongst Ministers from OECD Member and non-Member countries, international organisations, civil society and the private sector, to chart the way forward for addressing key public governance challenges in order to build trust and strengthen democracy. The day-long event concluded with a Global High-Level Dialogue on Reinforcing Democracy and discussions to inform the OECD Public Governance Ministerial on “Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy” taking place on 18 November.

16 Nov 2022 | Seminar on "Trust between regulators" with Kathryn Wright

On 16 November 2022, prof. Kathryn Wright (York Law School, UK) presented her work on "Trust between regulators within and beyond the EU: the role of legally embedded principles" in a lunch seminar at the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence. A short description of her presentation: The principle of mutual trust is central to EU law (most obviously expressed through the principle of mutual recognition in the internal market, and the general principle of loyal cooperation). According to the CJEU, this principle of mutual trust is not applicable in relations between the EU and non-Member States. In these circumstances, trust is constructed through governance structures such as lesser mutual recognition agreements, equivalence mechanisms, non-regression clauses or, in the case of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, level playing field commitments, aiming to manage regulatory divergence. Regulators are at the forefront of managing and monitoring the degree of regulatory alignment. They may be involved in competitive and/or cooperative relationships (for example in regulatory networks), which raises the question of trust between regulators themselves. The trust literature suggests that the relationship between law and trust is contradictory: it creates a safety net by reducing uncertainty and coordinating expectations, but actual use of legal sanctions is incompatible with a trust relationship. That raises the role of legally embedded principles in the governance structures mentioned above to avoid disputes, for example through equivalence, requirements for independent authorities as counterparts, and transparency.

Kick-off meetings of CONTRA, ROBUST and LEGITIMULT projects

​23 Sep 2022 | The CONTRA project was kicked off with four days of creative brainstorming at the University of Tilburg. CONTRA aims to get a better understanding of productive conflict in urban transformations. The kick-off included experimentation with various theatrical techniques as a way to prepare for the launch of the Drama Labs. In addition, there were fruitful online meetings with the city partners of Gdynia, Genk and Drammen. 

6 Oct 2022 | The kick-off meeting for the Horizon Europe ROBUST project on 'Robust Crisis Governance in Turbulent Times' took place on 6-7 October 2022 at Roskilde University, Denmark. UAntwerp/GOVTRUST is a core partner in the project, with participation of Koen Verhoest and Wouter Van Dooren. With the kick-off meeting, the project has now officially been launched.

​17 Oct 2022 | The kick-off meeting for the Horizon Europe LEGITIMULT project on 'Legitimate Crisis Governance in Multilevel Systems' took place on 17-18 October 2022 at Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy. UAntwerp/GOVTRUST is a partner in the project, with participation of Patricia Popelier, Peter Bursens and Maja Sahadzic. With the kick-off meeting, the project has now officially been launched.

29 Aug - 2 Sep 2022 | GOVTRUST Summer School: A Multi-Level Perspective on Trust and Public Governance

At the end of the Summer of 2022, we organised the very first edition of the GOVTRUST Summer School on the topic of ‘A Multi-Level Perspective on Trust and Public Governance’. From 22 August until 2 September 2022, participants gained a multidisciplinary understanding of trust in and between societal actors in multi-level public governance. Drawing on high-level scientific expertise from at least five disciplines (political science, communication science, law, behavioural economics and public administration), the Summer School investigated a wide range of critical questions about the dynamics, causes and effects of trust and public governance from a multi-level perspective. Through a combination of (guest) lectures, discussions and workshops, participants were stimulated to think across disciplinary boundaries, interact with each other and engage with speakers from academic and professional backgrounds. 

With 24 participants from various parts of the wo rld, we can look back on a successful first edition of the GOVTRUST Summer School.

We kicked off the GOVTRUST Summer School with a keynote by Monica Brezzi from the OECD Directorate for Public Governance. In her keynote address, she talked about the OECD's work on trust in public institutions, including the updated OECD framework on drivers of trust in public institutions and the results from the recent OECD Trust Survey.

The GOVTRUST Summer School also brought us to the FASFC (Federal Food Safety Agency) in Brussels. Based on recent results from the EU TiGRE project, participants reflected on the importance of trust in the regulatory system of the food safety sector. We thank the FASFC hosts and stakeholders for their time and gracious hospitality.

9-11 June 2022 | Transatlantic Dialogue (TAD)

On 9-11 June 2022, Koen Verhoest participated in the Transatlantic Dialogue (TAD), hosted by Roskilde University. The theme of TAD16 was "Strategic Management of Public Sector Transformation in Turbulent Times: Enhancing Collaborative Governance and Co-creation of Public Value". Koen Verhoest, together with Jodi Sandfort, chaired a workshop on "Public innovation through public-private collaboration: governance, structure, processes and trust".

7-8 June 2022 | 6th TiGRE Consortium Meeting & TiGRE Young Scholar's Workshop

On 7 and 8 June 2022, the researchers on the TiGRE project were happy to meet each other for the sixth consortium meeting in Utrecht (see photo below). The consortium meeting was followed by the TiGRE Young Scholars' Workshop, with several roundtables on publication strategies and career development.

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19 May 2022 | Presentation on 'Misinformation and trust in science' by Karolien Poels

On 19 May 2022, the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) organised a focus day on science communication. In one of the break-out sessions, Karolien Poels talked about misinformation and trust in science.

16 May 2022 | Closing ceremony DIGI4FED project​

On 16 May 2022, the DIGI4FED project was concluded with a closing ceremony, presenting the project findings. You can now rewatch the recording through the following link.

4 May 2022 | GOVTRUST Consortium Meeting

On 4 May 2022, the GOVTRUST consortium came together for a meeting looking back on the activities of 2021 and the state of affairs in regards to our goals. We also discussed some challenges that remain and some concrete ideas/initiatives that are in the pipeline. After the meeting, we enjoyed a nice dinner (see photo below).

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18 Mar 2022 | Webinar on 'Enabling AI in public services' with Bjorn Kleizen

Bjorn Kleizen presented his work on citizens' trust in AI applications in the online event "Enabling AI in public services. About the event: There is great interest to use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to improve government processes and public services. However, the adoption of AI is still challenging for many public administrations. This workshop presented the results of an exploratory survey in Belgian administrations, key recommendations initiatives contributing to facilitate the adoption of AI in public services. Inspiring uses cases and ways to facilitate the adoption of AI in public services were featured. In this event, Bjorn talked about taking citizens perceptions into account when considering and developing AI enabling practices (results from a test lab - Belgian landscape). He answered the following questions: Can we convince citizens that an application using AI is fair and trustworthy? What is the role of pre-existing attitudes and perceptions? More information.

17 Feb 2022 | GOVTRUST Annual Symposium on 'Trust and the Governance of Technology'

On 17 February 2022, the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence organised its second (online) Annual Symposium. The theme of the Symposium was “Trust and the Governance of Technology”. During this seminar, guest speakers as well as members of the GOVTRUST consortium presented recent work on the topic of trust and technology, identified key learning points, and raised some crucial questions and issues for discussion. You can now look back at the Symposium and download presentations.

• 15-16 Nov 2021 | TROPICO Final Online Event 'Digital Era Collaboration'
  

​TROPICO investigates how public administrations are transformed into open, innovative and collaborative governments. With a better understanding of this transformation, collaboration in policy design and service delivery can be enhanced, advancing the participation of public, private and societal actors. The development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the process of digitalisation offer new prospects for such transformation, and for a more efficient, transparent and effective collaboration in and by governments.

The TROPICO Final Event 'Digital Era Collaboration' celebrated the achievements of the project and offered the possibility to share insights stemming from 4,5 years of research, reflect on the TROPICO findings and provide an arena for joint discussion. A broad range of topics were addressed during the two day online conference. In Session 3 particularly, trust was shown as an important contributor for collaboration and innovation. More than 50 practitioners and academics from both the public and private sector attended the session. The session focused on the research conducted in Work Package 3 and Work Package 7 of the TROPICO project, and connected scientific results with practice-oriented insights during a panel discussion with members from government, the non-profit sector and the for-profit sector. The research, which was conducted by an international research team, examined how several collaborative conditions contribute to innovation in public-private collaborations. Trust proved to be a necessary condition for innovation in such partnerships, which means that whenever innovation is present in such collaborations, trust is too.

• 28 Oct 2021 | Spectrum lecture on 'Trust and compliance'

On 28 October 2021, Sophie Op de Beeck gave an online lecture for the Spectrum series on 'Citizens' Compliance with Government Policies and Measures: A Matter of Trust in Government?'. Spectrum is a lecture series organised by the University of Antwerp's Science Communication Team and makes science, research and culture accessible to all interested parties. The programme offers lectures by scientists from the University of Antwerp and related institutions, alumni and speakers from various sectors. Rewatch the lecture recording (in Dutch). 

• 25 Oct 2021 | Seminar on 'Trust and Distrust in Institutions' with Dominika Latusek

​On 25 October 2021, Prof. Dominika Latusek-Jurczak from the Center for Trust Research (Kozminski University, Poland), and affiliated with the TIGRE project, presented her work on 'Trust and Distrust in Institutions' in a lunch seminar. Questions arising are: What is trust and distrust in relation to institutions, and how does it relate to trust and distrust between people? What are the virtues, but also limits to trust in institutions? Is distrust in institutions necessarily negative in the context of our public life? Can the traps of unwarranted and excessive trust and distrust in institutions be avoided? During the seminar, Dominika Latusek explored some of these questions drawing on theoretical and empirical literature from the trust field, as well as on her own research in the context of complex social transformation.

• 15 Oct 2021 | Seminar on 'The Impact of AI in the Public Sector' with Steven Nõmmik

As a PhD researcher in the EU Horizon 2020 funded TROPICO project, drs. Steven Nõmmik from the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance (Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia) visited the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence in October 2021. During a lunch seminar on 15 October 2021, he presented a draft paper entitled 'Understanding AI Impacts in Public Sector: A Conceptual Framework'. The paper aimed to develop a framework that gathers the key effects mentioned in the literature to guide towards enabling meaningful evaluations of AI in a public sector setting. The framework further aimed at providing a short overview of the key dynamics that shape the occurrence of the potential impacts of AI. 

• 8 Oct 2021 | Seminar on ‘Citizen’s Trust in Bureaucracies’ with Tobias Bach

On 8 October 2021, Prof. Tobias Bach (Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway) presented his work on 'Citizen’s Trust in Bureaucracies' in a lunch seminar at the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence. More specifically, he talked about the recent results from a conjoint experiment on the effect of politicisation and competence on citizens' trust in bureaucracy. The study underscored the importance of administrative leaders' competence for administrative performance and provided a more nuanced picture of patronage in the public sector. 

• 6 Sep 2021 | Seminar on 'Trust, Vulnerability and the Justice System' with Joe Hamm & Caitlin Cavanagh

On 6 September 2021, Prof. Joe Hamm and Prof. Caitlin Cavanagh (School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, United States) presented their work on 'Trust, Vulnerability and the Justice System' in a hybrid lunch seminar at the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence. Joe Hamm talked about 'Centering Vulnerability in Public Trust': Despite largely defining itself in terms of vulnerability, research on public trust has rarely attended to the construct. In this presentation, prof. Joe Hamm explored the nature of vulnerability and its likely implications for trust research and will overview a trilogy of studies investigating public vulnerability to the police with the goal of shedding new light and highlighting persisting issues in exploring this intersection of trust and vulnerability. Caitlin Cavanagh talked about 'Understanding the Development of Youth Trust in the Justice System': Legal socialization, the process by which individuals form (positive or negative) attitudes toward the justice system and its actors, is a normative part of adolescence. How do these justice system attitudes form during a developmental sensitive period? Prof. Caitlin Cavanagh’s presentation explored how youths’ personal and vicarious experiences with legal actors across contexts shape their attitudes toward the justice system.

• 23 Mar 2021 | Session on 'Intersectoral Collaboration' at the International Smart City Symposium

Koen Verhoest delivered a presentation on intersectoral collaboration (based on PSI-CO and TROPICO projects) as invited speaker at the International Smart City Symposium, organised by CityLAB Berlin, Hertie School of Governance.

• 10 Mar 2021 | Webinar on 'How to Collaborate for Innovation'

Koen Verhoest delivered an invited presentation on 'How to Collaborate for Innovation' (based on PSI-CO and TROPICO projects) for senior researchers at Sciensano.

• 24 Feb 2021 | Webinar on 'Innovation through Collaboration and Co-Creation'
  

Koen Verhoest and Emmanuel Dockx presented their work on innovation through collaboration and co-creation in the webinar series organised by the Flemish government's Senior Civil Service (Voorzitterscollege). In this webinar, the researchers discussed the most important findings, lessons and recommendations from their research project on ‘Innovation through Collaboration and Co-creation’ in the Flemish government (Policy Research Centre Governance Innovation). What is the current state of innovation in the Flemish government? What type of innovations are being developed (new policy, new technologies, services and processes)? Are these innovations developed alone or in collaboration with other actors? To what extent are they satisfied with the innovations and are the innovations actually tested and/or implemented? What is the influence of organisational culture, red tape, innovation capacity and collaboration on innovation outcomes? Based on the results of a broad survey among senior civil servants in the Flemish government, the researchers elaborated on their findings regarding the necessary conditions for organisations to innovate, whether or not in collaboration and co-creation with other actors. They also presented recommendations and action points to strengthen the Flemish government’s innovation and co-creation capacity as well as it’s agility.

• 5 Feb 2021 | Lesson of the Century on 'Corona-related Social Science Research'

The University of Antwerp's Faculty of Social Sciences organised an event Lesson of the Century on February 5, 2021. The topic of the event was "Corona-related Social Science Research" and was aimed at an audience of 16 to 18 year old secondary school students. From the GOVTRUST consortium, prof. dr. Koen Verhoest and prof. dr. Karolien Poels contributed to the event. Koen Verhoest talked about the research on trust in government and compliance with corona measures. Karolien Poels talked about addressing concerns on the COVID-19 vaccines through appropriate communication. More information or video recordings of the presentations (in Dutch).

• 29 Jan 2021 | GOVTRUST Annual Symposium on 'Trust and the COVID-19 Crisis'

On 29 January 2021, the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence organised its first (online) Annual Symposium. The purpose of the first GOVTRUST Annual Symposium was to introduce the work of GOVTRUST and involve the broader community working in the field of trust, regulation and multi-level governance. The theme of the Symposium was “Trust and the COVID-19 Crisis: Regulation and Compliance in Multi-level Governance”. During this seminar, guest speakers as well as members of the GOVTRUST consortium presented recent work on the topic of trust and the coronavirus crisis, identified key learning points, and raised some crucial questions and issues for discussion. You can now look back at the Symposium and download presentations.

• 21 Jan 2021 | PSI-CO Online Conference 'Public Sector Innovation through Collaboration'

To conclude the PSI-CO project, we organised an online conference on January 21, 2021. During this conference both from researchers and practitioners talked about how innovation through collaboration can best be achieved. How should the collaboration be managed? But also: what characteristics do innovative organizations have and what role is reserved for the federal government with regard to innovation? The conference consisted of three thematic sessions. Session 1 on 'Innovation through collaboration: Why, with whom and how to manage it?'. Session 2 on 'Organizational conditions at play in collaborative innovation context'. Session 3 on 'How to stimulate collaborative innovation in government?' More information.

• 17 Dec 2020 | Webinar on 'Trust & Rule Compliance'

Frédérique Six and Monika Glavina hosted a seminar on 'Trust & Rule Compliance' in the TiGRE webinar series on "Trust & Regulatory Governance in an Age of Crisis". As the Covid-19 crisis proceeds, motivating citizens to continue to comply with regulations that impact heavily on the life that they were accustomed to before the outbreak, gets more and more challenging. The literature shows convincing evidence that trust in government (regulator) has a positive impact on rule compliance, both under normal conditions and in times of crisis. In this seminar Frédérique Six, together with Monika Glavina, presented and compared insights from several theoretical perspectives and provided implications for practice.​

• 25 Nov, 2 Dec & 9 Dec 2020 | TROPICO online seminar series 'Collaborating for Digital Transformation - Achievements, Challenges and Future Solutions'

The TROPICO Online Series 2020 aimed to unpack how public and private actors collaborate to facilitate the digital transformation in Europe and which challenges they face. Societies and governments across Europe aim to become more open and connected using digital tools. Providing ICT-enabled public services has become a priority for most European governments, promising more efficient and high quality services. Connecting various stakeholders is a central objective of contemporary open and digital governments. In this context, governments increasingly seek to establish collaborations, on the one hand between governments, and on the other hand between governments and the private sector. These collaborations provide both shared public services and aim to establish new ICT-enabled public services. During the three virtual sessions, ongoing research was presented and relevant topics related to this theme were discussed. Session 1 on 'Collaborating for Digital Transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic'. Session 2 on 'Digital Transformation: The Challenge of Better Collaboration within Government'. Session 3 on 'Public-private collaboration for eHealth innovation'. This event series was initiated by the TROPICO project, and co-organised by members of GOVTRUST.

• 27 Nov 2020 | Webinar on 'Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: The Challenges for (Tax) Authorities'

​DIGI4FED and DigiTax organised a joint webinar on the operational, ethical, legal and behavioral challenges imposed by big data and artificial intelligence (AI) on (tax) authorities. As part of the webinar, GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence's Dr. Bjorn Kleizen talked about the impact of big data and AI on trust in government. More information here.

• 18 Nov 2020 | Webinar on 'Trust & Vaccination'

Koen Verhoest, Sophie Op de Beeck and Monika Glavina hosted a seminar on 'Trust & Vaccination' in the TiGRE webinar series on "Trust & Regulatory Governance in an Age of Crisis". ​Large-scale vaccination with an eventual COVID19 vaccine is considered by most governments and citizens to be the ultimate solution of the current health crisis. However, vaccination hesitancy, intensified by anti-vax movements, is a major problem, both in normal times and in health crises. During this seminar, Koen Verhoest, Sophie Op de Beeck and Monika Glavina, reviewed the theoretical and empirical insights in literature on the effect of trust on vaccination hesitancy and vaccination refusal and discussed its explanatory power in relation to other relevant factors. They also discussed recent findings on vaccination hesitancy in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.​

• 20 Aug 2020 | Seminar on 'National Parliaments and EU Economic Governance' with Ivana Skazlic

On August 20, 2020, dra. Ivana Skazlic from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna presented her work on national parliaments and EU economic governance. Ivana is an Early Stage Researcher within the EU MSCA-ITN project 'Post-Crisis Legitimacy of the European Union' (PLATO). She presented a paper deriving from her doctoral research, entitled "National parliaments and EU economic governance: which factors trigger parliamentary activities in the European Semester?".

• 7 Feb 2020 | Seminar on 'Public Apologies' with Muiris MacCarthaigh

On February 7, 2020, Professor Muiris MacCarthaigh from Queens University Belfast presented his work on accountability and public apologies. His paper, written with Anna Bryson and entitled “Delivering Accountability? The Role of Public Apologies in Ireland” deals with blame acceptance and related efforts to provide accountability and trust repair in the Irish context, using the medium of public apologies.

• 13 Jan 2020 | Seminar on 'Trust in Governance' with Frédérique Six

On January 13, 2020, Professor Frédérique Six provided an extensive overview of the state of the art in trust research and trust in regulatory systems research as an introduction for researchers joining their efforts in the new GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence.