The TROPICO project (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) aimed 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 analyzed collaboration in and by governments, with a special emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and its consequences.
TROPICO analyzed institutional conditions shaping collaboration in Europe, individuals’ attitudes, skills, knowledge, and incentives for collaboration, collaboration practices in policy design within governments emphasizing the relevance of ICT, and examined the conditions and practices of collaboration in policy design involving public, private, and civil society actors and how user-knowledge is integrated with these processes. TROPICO further studied innovative collaboration practices in government service delivery, analyzed different types of partnerships in such innovative services, and assessed the impact of novel, open, and innovative collaboration practices on legitimacy, accountability, and government efficiency. A main objective was to discuss and reflect on key findings with stakeholders and users and advise policy-makers on the conditions, enablers, and barriers, as well as good practices for the transformation towards open, innovative and collaborative governments.