Governance
The United Nations has identified ‘Aligning Governance to the Challenges of Global Sustainability’ as a key problem of the 21st century. The Copernicus Institute has responded by developing a strong research line in this field.
We study governance systems and processes at all levels of decision-making, from urban politics to the reform of international organizations. Our work is empirical-analytical as well as normative: we study what makes governance effective but also how to transform governance systems towards a more sustainable future. Our research on governance is sometimes issue-focussed and case-based but often addresses also broader societal questions such as democracy, legitimacy and justice.
Highlights
Mission-oriented Innovation Policy Observatory
The observatory’s objective is to enhance the understanding, monitoring and effective use of challenge-based innovation missions aimed at solving complex societal problems (related to e.g. the Sustainable Development Goals). To do so, the MIPO unites policy practitioners and scholars from innovation, transition and governance studies.
Neighbourhoods for the future
We assign our cities the grandiose task to become climate neutral in 2025, 2030 or 2050. But how will people live in those cities? How can we combine sustainability and sociability? Indeed, managing the urban expansion and acting on climate change while building better places to live requires innovative (social) arrangements. We advocate taking on this global challenge from the neighbourhood up.
Shifting role of local government: from steering to facilitating
In residents’ initiatives that aim to boost a city’s climate resilience, municipalities aim to focus more on facilitating, according to UU scientists.
Quiet sustainability
Peri-urban agriculture is found between the outer limits of urban centres and the rural environment. A new study reveals the importance of peri-urban agriculture for local communities’ sense of purpose, social fabric, and resilience.
Regulatory Science
Rare diseases affect a small number of patients. As a result, companies and knowledge institutes invest less of their time and money in innovation for rare diseases. This project seeks to understand the regulatory, economic, political, social, and scientific barriers and facilitators to alternative forms of pharmaceutical research for drugs for rare diseases.
Introducing innovative full pricing: Oiconomy Pilot launched
The Oiconomy Price, developed by Dr Pim Croes and Dr Walter J.V. Vermeulen (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development), measures the cost distance to a fully sustainable alternative for the product, incorporating all triple-P aspects (Planet, People and Prosperity) of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Policy brief series: Dealing with Greater Jakarta floods in times of climate change
Triggered by the severe flooding in early 2020, researchers from Indonesia and The Netherlands published a series of six policy briefs. The core message is unanimous: the flooding is a wake-up call to address the consequences of extreme weather and sea-level rise due to climate change.
Why religion matters for climate change, whatever you believe
Climate Confessions is a monthly blog series in which Timothy Stacey reveals the “religious repertoires” associated with sustainability in various sectors. From the myths of great floods that dominate in Dutch politics to the rituals of reconnecting with other humans and the other-than-human found among activists, each month, Tim invites you into the repertoires that lurk beneath the surface, shaping sustainability in an otherwise secular world.
Passing the buck: Getting to the bottom of environmental problem shifting
There are over 1000 multilateral environmental agreements, each trying to protect its own self-contained slice of the environment. But if every country complied with all the treaties that exist in the world, would we actually end up in a better place? This is the overarching question being investigated by Copernicus' Dr. Rak Kim.
Breaking the curse or going under: governance challenges of land subsidence in Dutch peatlands
10 meters is the almost surreal amount by which the Dutch peatlands have lowered over the last 1000 years of human dominance of the landscape. Copernicus research identifies some of the main challenges in the governance of subsiding peatlands and gives suggestions on how to move forward.
How strategy games may hold the key to environmental policy that works
A Perspective in Nature Sustainability suggests that when played by the right people in the right way, strategy games can help break free from established norms and support more transparent democratic dialogues, responding to the human and social limitations of current decision-making.
SDGs failing to have meaningful impact, research warns
Two years into the decisive decade for humanity's future on Earth, fundamental changes are needed if we are to shift onto a sustainable and resilient path, argue the authors of the study in Nature Sustainability.
Closing down futures in the world's most vulnerable regions? How dominant policy practices limit scenario possibilities
Researchers analysed the range of methods employed by governments across the Global South to anticipate the future in climate policy processes, illustrating how the way the future is envisioned either open ups or restricts possibilities for present-day action.
Women and youth in South Africa tackle water scarcity together with Utrecht University researchers
Researchers, an NGO, and residents of the village of Moyaneng in South Africa have together worked on solutions to a lack of clean drinking water, food, and energy. As co-researchers, young people and women from Moyaneng did a large part of the research themselves— a unique approach to transdisciplinary research with direct impact on local communities.
Selected experts
Frank Biermann Professor of Global Sustainability Governance
Harriet Bulkeley Professor of Environmental Governance
Peter Driessen Professor of Environmental Governance
Maarten Hajer Professor of Urban Futures
Sanne Akerboom Assistant Professor of Regulation and Governance of the Energy Transition
Ellen Moors Professor of Innovation and Sustainability
