18 projects to explore the opportunities, challenges and crises relevant to democracy, governance and trust

The Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) is delighted to announce the 18 awardees of the T-AP DGT call.

The 18 funded projects will deepen our understanding of opportunities, challenges, and crises, relevant to democracy, governance and trust.

The findings of the research aim to support how conditions for democracy, governance and trust can be maintained, fostered, rebuilt where needed and nurtured through a range of interventions and initiatives based on basic research and/or empirical evidence.

The researchers will lead the projects, worth nearly 14.14 million USD (approx. 12.89 million Euros; approx. £11.07 million), from nine countries across four continents offering diverse methodological, disciplinary, and cross-national perspectives.

The projects are funded by 11 major funders. The participating countries and funding organisations in DGT call are:

ANR (France), FAPESP (Brazil), FRQSC (Canada), HRZZ (Croatia), NCN (Poland), NRF (South Africa), NEH (USA), NSF (USA), SNSF (Switzerland), SSHRC (Canada), UKRI (ESRC and AHRC) (UK).

The topics covered by the 18 research projects include:

How to inform policy interventions to foster trust, and social norms that discourage violence, promote cooperation, and sustain democracy.
How major cities are responding to the key democratic challenges using urban participatory innovations.
The role of Big Tech in the advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the future of democracy, governance and trust.
How to fortify democratic resilience in the face of future health crises.
Using generative Artificial Intelligence to promote democratic norms, increase trust, and decrease polarisation.
Elaborating new principles and exemplars of education that can meet contemporary challenges to democracy and peace.
Exploring under what conditions digital communication can strengthen or erode trust.
Offering revised version of Open Democracy that enhances citizen participation.
Examining the role of evidence-informed science diplomacy as a strategic instrument to strengthen democracy, governance, and trust.
How independent journalism enhances trust and democratic resilience.
Understanding how local practices of deep equality provide new frameworks for strengthening democracy, ensuring inclusive governance, and improving trust.
Analysing policy failure risks in the design and implementation of Mission oriented innovation policies.
Focusing on the graphic objects of street protest for global movements.
Exploring the interplay of trust and governance and the effects on the economic development.
Understanding the dynamics of polarization, trust and behaviours among urban youth.
Mapping and understanding cross-sector opinions on trust and accountability.
Reimagining global cooperative mechanisms by recovering the past relationship between political participation, democracy and international institutions.
Defining the political impact of new émigré communities on host countries and the former’s potential to affect political change in their country of origin.