We're collaborating with Trinity College Dublin to investigate how commercial platforms affect trust in public institutions

Our three-year research programme will examine whether the modern digital environment is eroding public trust in experts and public institutions.

Based at the ADAPT Centre at Trinity College Dublin, one of Europe's leading research centres for digital media and AI, the dotPublic research programme seeks answers to a fundamental question – has the internet's commercial infrastructure made it harder for people to trust the institutions that are supposed to act in the public interest?

"Public institutions have adapted to the internet as it exists. This programme allows us to ask whether that environment is aligned with their purpose."

— Professor Dave Lewis, Professor of Computer Science, ADAPT

Over the past two decades, universities, libraries, broadcasters, and public bodies have moved online using systems built for commercial purposes – systems that prioritise engagement and behavioural data over privacy, accountability, and long-term access. Public-interest information now circulates through the same environments as content published with no obligation to accuracy or public responsibility.

"The question is not simply how to preserve information, but whether the conditions in which it is published are changing how people relate to it."

— Tony Ageh, Executive Director, dotPublic

The three-year programme will test whether that shift has had measurable consequences, and whether new infrastructure could provide a more stable foundation for trusted knowledge online. As part of the research, ADAPT's own digital outputs will serve as a live pilot – a practical test case that any publicly funded institution can replicate.

We will publish all findings openly on this website.

Find out more

• Read our media release – [Trinity College Dublin / dotPublic research collaboration to examine how commercial platforms affect trust in public institutions]

• Read Trinity College Dublin's media release – Trinity-led project will build a more trustworthy internet for public knowledge

[Image credit – The Old Library – The Library of Trinity College Dublin by hernanpba licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0]