Dr. Scott Douglas

Biography

Scott Douglas researches successful collaboration in tackling complex problems within the fields of safety, security, social policy, functional illiteracy, radicalization, child abuse, and crises. He examines the performance of collaborations between governments, companies, and community organizations. His work has been published in several prominent journals, including Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Policy & Society, and Evaluation. Scott integrates research and education with societal impact, leading innovative projects that involve academics, students, and practitioners in jointly examining collaboration performances. He has successfully led various projects for organizations like NWO, the Dutch National Security Counterterrorism Coordinator, the Literacy Foundation, and municipalities such as Utrecht and Arnhem. Additionally, Scott serves as a part-time director at Court Audit Almere and is a board member of the Dutch Safety Investigation Board. He is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary research platform Security Open Societies and co-chairs the Standing Group on Public Sector Performance with the European Group on Public Administration. Currently, he co-leads an international Horizon consortium that investigates how eighteen European cities addressed the Corona-crisis through the ten-year Adapt! consortium, focusing on societal responses to crises. Moreover, he collaborates with colleagues from UMC Utrecht and Oxford University, developing tools for data collection and sharing, including the free online Performance Management Game. Scott is also the managing editor of the open-access Collaborative Governance Case Database and has contributed to developing methods for evaluating network performance. He completed his PhD at the University of Oxford and was elected as a member of De Jonge Akademie of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science in 2023.

Research Interests