Scientific Publications
Open access – Published November 2024
Authors: Christiana Varda, Kalypso Iordanou, Josephina Antoniou, Mariano Martín Zamorano Barrios, Evren Yalaz, Agata Gurzawska, Gábor Szüdi, Pamela Bartar & Lisa Häberlein.
This peer-reviewed article introduces the concept of “Stewards of Trust” as intermediaries who play a crucial role in shaping trust in science among various stakeholder groups. The study adopts a multistakeholder perspective, drawing on empirical insights from engagement activities within the VERITY project. It identifies the characteristics and practices that make certain individuals or institutions effective facilitators of trust and explores how these stewards can be empowered to enhance transparency, credibility, and accountability in scientific communication. The paper aligns closely with findings from Work Packages focused on trust dynamics and institutional legitimacy.
Open access – Published June 2025
Authors: Christiana Varda, Kalypso Iordanou.
This publication investigates how science journalists, depending on their degree of specialization, vary in their epistemic aims and reporting practices. Through interviews and content analysis, the study reveals that specialist science journalists often seek to preserve the complexity and nuance of scientific knowledge, while non-specialists may prioritize accessibility and newsworthiness. The findings underscore the importance of journalistic epistemologies in shaping public understandings of science and contribute to the project’s work on communication strategies (WP3). The study also highlights how journalists act as mediators of trust and interpretation between scientists and the public – a key concern in VERITY’s exploration of science-society relations.
Open access – published September 2025
Authors: Panagiotis Monachelis, Emily Maitland, Kalypso Iordanou, Charalampos Patrikakis, Evren Yalaz & Pericles Papadopoulos
This journal article led by UniWA was presented in the IEEE COMPSAC 2025 Conference and published in the proceedings from the COMPSAC Symposium on Data Science, Analytics & Technologies (DSAT 2025), pp. 203-211.
Open access – published November 2025
Authors: Evren Yalaz Ozen, Mariano Martin Zamorano, Emily Maitland, Agata Gurzawska, Gabor Szudi & Pamela Bartar
The relationship between trust in science and acceptance of wind energy projects represents a critical factor in the successful deployment of renewable energy infrastructure. As countries worldwide pursue energy transitions to meet climate goals, understanding the social dimensions of wind farm acceptance has become increasingly important for policymakers, developers, and communities. This study reaffirms that trust-building strategies for renewable energy must be tailored to the demographic contexts in which they are deployed.
The paper contributes to the literature on renewable energy acceptance by providing systematic, comparative evidence of how different socio-demographic groups respond to distinct trust-building interventions. It moves beyond aggregate attitudes or local case studies to demonstrate the demographic specificity of trust, adding nuance to existing scholarship on public engagement with wind energy.
The full article is published in Frontiers in Climate, 7, 1690961.
Open access – published March 2026
Authors: Kalypso Iordanou, Josephina Antoniou, & Maura De Vos
This systematic literature review of factors influencing public trust in science provides insights for strengthening science-society relationships and informing responsible research practices.
Our analysis of 124 empirical studies reveals multiple factors that are linked to trust in science, which we organize into three key categories: (a) Receiver – individual characteristics of the public, (b) Message – scientific information and its delivery, and (c) Source – scientists and the scientific method. Our synthesis demonstrates that trust in science is related to multiple factors, from individual factors (prior beliefs, attitudes, values, epistemic beliefs) to communication (such as channel credibility, ethics communication) and scientific practices (open science, replicability). Our findings have several important implications for research practice, science communication and education. Most notably, the findings highlight the pivotal role of research integrity in fostering and maintaining public trust in science, with scientists’ perceived integrity, epistemic practices that support transparency, and epistemic inclusion all being fundamentally interconnected in shaping public trust.
The systematic literature review is published in the Journal of Academic Ethics, Volume 24, article number 56, (2026).
Open access – published March 2026
This open access book proposes that Europe has something to offer in the current landscape, namely decades of experience when it comes to addressing societal, ethical, and regulatory challenges of technoscientific change. The authors contend that through participatory research methodologies, “European sciences” have the opportunity to strengthen their responsiveness to societal values, priorities, and concerns.”
- This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access
- Includes novel and comprehensive empirical findings from different studies and actors: scientists, journalists, citizens
- Identifies mechanisms and challenges for public trust in science
- Presents recommendations on how to promote science-society relations
The book is part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Research and Innovation Governance (BRIEFSREINGO).
VERITY Policy-related contributions
Open access – Published November 2024
Contributor: Agata Gurzawska
The 11th World Science Forum (WSF 2024), held in Budapest (20–23 November 2024), concluded with a unanimously endorsed Declaration emphasising the urgent need to strengthen global trust in science. VERITY not only is a signatory of this Declaration, but also actively shaped its text by providing feedback to the draft. The Declaration highlights the growing gap between scientific progress and progress on climate goals, inequalities, and emerging technologies, and calls for broadened scientific understanding and evidence-informed, long-term policymaking. The Forum urged efficient, creative, and trusted science-policy dialogues to address rapid global transformations.
Open access – Published January 2025
Authors: Agata Gurzawska &Panagiotis Monachelis.
VERITY has its input in the OPERAS published Report titled: “Fostering Trust in the Digital Age”. Among the papers collected from the TrustOn2024 Workshop and a session at the Science Summit at the 79th United Nations General Assembly, two papers were accepted by Dr. Agata Gurzawska (TRI) and Panagiotis Monachelis (UNIWA).
The full report is available on Zenodo here: Fostering Trust in the Digital Age, and the papers rooting in VERITY are:
- “Re-defining the ecosystem of trust in science: the role of stewards of trust in changing research environments” by Agata Gurzawska (pages 33-36)
- “Fact or fiction: The battle against scientific disinformation in the social media arena” by Panagiotis Monachelis (pages 38-42)
Open access – Published April 2025
Contributor: Agata Gurzawska.
VERITY’s input in policy-shaping is evidenced also in the DG R&I Fourth Thematic report, following the Trust as a governance challenge for science-for-policy ecosystems – Mutual learning exercise on bridging the gap between science and policy, governed by the EC. The report analyses and comments on the replies given by the Project Coordinator – Dr. Agata Gurzawska during the Mutual Learning Exercise meeting in Warsaw in February 2025.
Open access – pending publishing
Authors: Agata Gurzawska.
An abstract for a paper “A Collective Sectoral Foresight for the Future of Public Engagement (PE) within Research and Innovation (R&I)” was submitted in June 2025 to the planned special issue of the journal Cultures of Science on Tensions in Science Communication. The article is a result of a strategic collaboration with EUSEA chairing Mutual Learning Exercise on Public Engagement. The article is based on the results of the MLA session at the PCST 2025 conference in Aberdeen. VERITY coordinator Dr. Agata Gurzawska is a co-author of this initiative.