TROPICO: Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments

The TROPICO project (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) aims to comparatively examine how public administrations are transformed to enhance collaboration in policy design and service delivery, advancing the participation of public, private and societal actors. It analyses collaboration in and by governments, with a special emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and its consequences.

TROPICO includes four key pillars of the digital transformation towards better collaboration across public sectors in Europe: Pillar 1 assesses the institutional conditions and individual drivers and barriers is crucial for understanding the transformation of governments towards greater collaboration. The state structures and administrative traditions provide different 'starting points' of the public sectors in Europe. Likewise, individual attitudes, skills, and expertise of officials play a decisive role in understanding this transformation. Pillar 2 examines collaboration practices within governments (internal) across a variety of policy sectors. We study the actors and means of innovative collaboration, including ICT, and how they are interlinked. Pillar 3 focuses on collaboration between public, private and societal actors (external) for policy design and service delivery, looking into front line offices as well as novel public-private partnerships. Pillar 4 examines the effects of collaboration for legitimacy, accountability and government efficiency is essential to provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformation towards open, innovative, and collaborative governments.

TROPICO is multidisciplinary and has a comparative approach, examining ten countries reflecting the administrative traditions in Europe: Nordic (Norway, Denmark), Continental (Germany, Netherlands), Central and Eastern European (Estonia, Hungary), Napoleonic (France, Spain; Belgium), and Anglo-Saxon (United Kingdom). We combine rigorous quantitative and qualitative research methods. We involve leading universities and research institutes across Europe, including: University of Bergen (coordinating institution), University of Roskilde, University of Potsdam, Hertie School of Governance, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Technical University Tallinn, Central European University, CNRS (Pacte) - Sciences Po Grenoble, University of Zaragoza, University of Antwerp, Catholic University Leuven and Cardiff University.

TROPICO runs from June 2017 to May 2021 and we disseminate our results for academic and practitioner audiences regularly online and offline.