The UAntwerpen team studied the variation of citizens' trust in government during the corona-crisis by comparing different levels of government (local, regional, national, European) during multiple phases of the pandemic (from April 2020 to May 2021).

Their work has been recently published in Vlaams Tijdschrift voor Overheidsmanagement (VTOM) journal, and is available in open access here.

The UAntwerpen team from TiGRE has recently published an article in Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, entitled "A research agenda for trust and distrust in a multilevel judicial system".

This paper is based on an overview of the empirical studies on trust/distrust in courts in Europe, while connecting the concept of multilevel governance.

The full article is available in open access by clicking here.

TiGRE is committed to gender equality, diversity and inclusion as exemplified by our daily research activities. Indeed, we carefully consider gender throughout the project from data collection and analysis to the composition of the research teams. Of note, 48% of the TiGRE consortium are women.

Happy International Women's Day for a diverse, equitable and inclusive world!

We are happy to welcome Lishanne Compagnie who has recently joined the department of the Utrecht School of Governance at Utrecht University! With her background in public administration, organisational science and governance, Lishanne will support the Utrecht team in their activities for TiGRE in her capacity as student assistant.

In addition, we gladly welcome Rocío Baeza, who joined the Spanish team of TiGRE at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). TiGRE will benefit from Rocío's expertise on inequality, development and public policy.

The TiGRE website has just been restructured, with additional webpages:

• TiGRE library, giving access to the list of scientific publications, policy briefs, series of webinars etc.
• Info corner, which gathers the project info sheets, press releases, video etc.
• Get involved, enabling information exchange, debate and active participation between TiGRE researchers, practitioners and stakeholders.

Enjoy browsing and reading about the key outcomes of the TiGRE project: stay tuned, more results are coming soon!

After two years into the project, the TiGRE consortium was happy to organise its fifth Consortium Meeting on 26-27 January 2022.

Despite the online format, it was a productive meeting, allowing for efficient discussions about the next steps in TiGRE including interviews, questionnaires and focus groups with stakeholders planned in the coming months.

We are looking forward to our next Consortium Meeting, which shall hopefully be organised in-person in Utrecht on 07-08 June 2022!

A large-scale survey on trust in regulatory regimes in Europe was conducted by the TiGRE consortium in 2020 by approaching key actors involved in the regulatory regimes for data protection, financial services and food safety.

The TiGRE partners have recently published a methodological report which outlines the steps needed in the design and the implementation of this multi-actor, multi-sector, and cross-country survey.

This report has been published open-access in the ARENA Report Series. If you want to know more about the survey data and methodology, click here for the download link.

The GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence (University of Antwerp, Belgium) is happy to organise the second GOVTRUST Annual Symposium, on 17 February 2022 at 14:00 - 17:00 CET.

The theme of the Symposium is “Trust and the Governance of Technology” and highlights the vital role of trust in harnessing the transformative potential of digital technologies for governments and citizens alike.

During the Symposium, members of the GOVTRUST consortium and guest speakers will present recent work on the topic of trust and technology, identify key learning points, and raise some crucial questions and issues for discussion.

Please save the date and check the Symposium’s website for more information and registration!

Our second policy brief, which is entitled "Trust in regulatory agencies: experts and citizens perspectives”, reports key findings from two original surveys measuring experts’ and citizens’ trust in regulatory agencies.

These surveys cover three policy sectors - data protection, financial services and food safety - and were conducted by the TiGRE project in six countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, and Norway.

This policy brief compares trust in regulatory agencies across countries and sectors, and it discusses differences and similarities with respect to trust patterns for experts and citizens.

We also highlight possible implications and next steps for further investigations within the TiGRE project.

You can download the brief by clicking here: enjoy reading and feel free to share it!