TrustOn 2024: Building Trust – SCIENCE Track

TrustOn 2024: Building Trust is a mini blogseries on the OPERAS blog with interviews of the chairs of the three tracks (mediation, science and infrastructure) of the “TrustOn 2024 – tackling disinformation” workshop from their unique perspective about the workshop in Brussels in June 2024. The results of the workshop will be presented online at the Science Summit at the 79th United Nations General Assembly on the 11th of September 2024, at 11 am (ET)/ 5 pm (CEST).

Answers by Charlotte Bruns, Agata Gurzawska, Tine Ravn (coordinators of the EU-funded sister projects COALESCE, IANUS, POIESIS and VERITY) and chairs of the Science Track at the TrustOn 2024 workshop

What motivated you to participate in the #TrustOn2024 workshop and how does it relate to your work?

As the coordinators of the EU-funded sister projects COALESCE, IANUS, POIESIS and VERITY, our aim is to explore what drives trust in science, whom the public trust, and how this trust can be cultivated. Through our projects, we aim to co-develop recommendations on building trust in science together with the science community and actors engaged in science production, education, communication, policy, funding and advocacy, implementation, oversight and protection as well as science-society facilitation and citizen science. The TrustOn2024 event was a great opportunity to connect and collaborate with those actors on building shared responsibility for trust in science.

What key insights have you gained about the role of science in building trust?

Science helps to understand and tackle grand contemporary challenges and assist with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to, for instance, global health, climate change, sustainability, and inequalities. However, scientific advancements are not enough if they are not accompanied by sufficient consideration of societal perceptions, public support and trust in science.

Presenting the results of the science track by the chairs

What is the role of collaboration for science regarding trust?

Our research findings and results of the TrustOn2024 event emphasise the collaborative nature of science and trust. Science is a collaborative enterprise; it does not involve just scientists, but the entire science community and the public. Science requires inclusive relationships in the ecosystem of trust in science and across all actors and communities.

What are the main challenges for science to build trust?

Trust in science is not constant, it is a changeable and dependable phenomenon influenced by a variety of factors. Moreover, the nature of science is changing, so we need a holistic approach to trust-building, integrating insights from various actors and mechanisms. This transformation includes, first, new actors engaged in research and new forms of research collaborations including public-private partnerships, participatory research through public engagement and citizen science. Second, research is increasingly multi-, trans- and interdisciplinary bringing together various disciplinary perspectives, for instance combining social sciences and humanities and social innovation for energy efficiency and sustainability, AI imaging algorithms for breast cancer detection, or AI for predicting disaster. Third, research does not know borders and is becoming more global. Finally, we cannot ignore the role of technology in research production whether in the form of search engines, data visualisations, or generative AI.

The level of trust in science and scientists is generally high globally and while a general crisis of trust cannot be identified, our studies suggest that several key challenges persist. Trust in science does also not mean that the public will follow science based recommendations. The changing nature of science poses new opportunities to address global societal and environmental challenges, but also raises concerns. With new forms of distributed trust, where trust is moving into the hands of the many, one can ask, who is responsible for nurturing trust in science and science-society relationships? How to draw boundaries between science, politics and economy which are increasingly connected? How to build digital and AI literacy to trust technological developments, which are entangled with ethical considerations that are related to trust in science?

Working groups at the science track at the TrustOn 2024

What would be your main recommendation for science that comes out of the discussions?

Trust in science requires a holistic approach, where all actors in the ecosystem of trust collaborate on nurturing trust in science. This involves collaboration at the macro, meso and micro levels to address the interconnected character of science, politics and economy. 

Among several recommendations at those levels, we strive for the Global Governance solutions and the role of policy makers including the UN in, first, COORDINATING misinformation and disinformation issues at the global level to ensure accountability in practice. We see the Brussels effect of EU regulations, and we hope to see a similar impact in the future of the Digital Service Act, Digital Markets Act, Code of Practice on Dis- und Misinformation, Political Advertising Act, etc. And second, in ENSURING freedom of science through protection of scientists, so we need a global strategy for RPOs (e.g. Universities) to protect researchers.

What was the biggest lesson you learned during the workshop or which session/presentation/moment had the most profound impact on you and why?

As the organisers of the trust in science track, we’re amazed by the power of co-creation and collaboration! During the two intense days of the TrustOn2024 event full of inspiring presentations, lively discussions, brainstorming sessions and colourful post-its, we managed to develop specific and science-based recommendations for enhancing trust in science. The co-creation of recommendations ensures representation and shared responsibility of the proposed solutions.

Presentation during the science track at the TrustOn 2024