Improving the governance of European public agencies

A large Horizon 2020 project comprising 10 European partners is aiming to improve the management of public services across the continent.

Professor Edoardo Ongaro led the preparation of the proposal and is on the steering committee of the ‘Co Production and Co Governance: Strategic Management, Public Value and Co Creation in the Renewal of Public Agencies across Europe’ project, or COGOV for short.

The consortium which was awarded €4,559,298 from the European Commission includes Northumbria (as the administrative lead university), King’s College London, Cardiff University, University of Tilburg, CSE Roskilde University and others.

The project, which began in May and runs until October 2021, will produce a set of tools and create new models for the strategic management of public agencies across Europe. It will develop a web-based toolkit and a practice sourcebook which features best practice case studies and models for the public sector to consult.

We’re hoping to find strategic approaches and models of strategy-making that fit the European context and values and which are based on bottom-up principles of co-production, co-innovation and co-governance. Such models enable the kind of strategic renewal which will add to the legitimacy of local and national governments across the EU.

Edoardo Ongaro
Professor of Public Management, OUBS