A broad consortium of scientific and societal organizations, including the national government, umbrella organizations, universities, municipalities, and funding bodies, have joined forces to collaborate over the coming years on the research project Empowering Citizen COllectives in societal transitions (ECCO). In 2025, the project was awarded 6.8 million by the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA).

The Netherlands faces major challenges like housing, climate change, and the energy transition, while citizens feel less control over their lives and trust in government declines. Citizen collectives, with their distinct institutional logic, can help strengthen local resilience and adaptability in response to these transitions. With their local roots, decentralized decision-making, and innovative approaches, citizen collectives can drive change, provided that governments treat them as equal partners and respect their autonomy. 

More research on the life cycles, impact, and partnership conditions of these collectives can help both sides learn from best practices. These insight will also be used to develop new models, methods, and tools that foster equal collaboration between governments and citizen collectives. Knowledge exchange platform CollectieveKracht, founded by professor Tine De Moor who is also the primary investigator of the project, will play a central role in this. Find our more about the consortium members, work packages and more on ECCO here >