The Smart Governance call is based on the idea that the future competitiveness of the Dutch economy and our quality of life will be determined to an important extent by our ability to strengthen and innovate the country’s social infrastructure. A crucial element of this infrastructure is its system of governance. Systems of governance should allow individuals, groups, and corporate actors to undertake effective collective action. The Dutch economy and our society are facing a number of major challenges. Meeting these challenges requires smart modes of governance, because traditional systems have failed or there are serious doubts regarding their adequacy for solving today’s problems. A mode of governance is considered ‘smart’ when it is conducive to timely and effective collective problem-solving under conditions of high problem complexity and contextual uncertainty and volatility. Such modes may involve more direct forms of regulation but may also involve the incentive structure provided by the environment.
Our research team consists of Kees Boersma, Peter Groenewegen, Julie Ferguson, Jeroen Wolbers, Femke Mulder and Arjen Schmidt. In this research project we extended our collaboration with two other experts in the field of crisis and disaster management: Arjen Boin and Bartel van de Walle. The project builds on our state-of-the-art knowledge and recent publications in this field. This is also recognised by the reviewers and the committee, who qualified our grant proposal as ‘excellent’.
Source: website Disaster Governance