Researchers from the ROBUST – Crisis Governance in Turbulent Times project met with 30+ stakeholders to discuss preliminary findings from the EU Horizon project. 

The diversity of our stakeholders’ valued contributions throughout the event, including NGOs, research groups, local governments, and more. Stakeholders engaged in a co-creation workshop to assess the feasibility of policy recommendations, whose critical input will inform our projects’ policy briefs.

Setting the stage, our PI, Jacob Torfing, highlighted how short-term crises often distract policymakers from long-term goals, emphasizing the need for robust governance strategies that adapt and innovate in response to ongoing turbulence.

Presentations covered:

• WP3 (Andrea Pettrachin): Multi-level governance (MLG) fosters collaboration across government levels and sectors, helping create robust crisis responses. Research on the COVID-19 and refugee crises across multiple countries illustrated how MLG can create robust responses by ensuring broad representation and coordination across stakeholders.
• WP4 (Steven Nõmmik): Governance hybridity combines measures to enhance crisis response, with case studies from Estonia and Urk, illustrating the strengths and challenges of hybrid governance systems, especially in contexts of conflicting priorities and pressures during crises.
• WP5 (Chiara Russo): Societal intelligence integrates diverse knowledge for effective decision-making during crises. Case studies revealed the importance of inclusive knowledge interfaces, adaptive information output, and the need for tailored approaches to ensure effective crisis response.