The Project – GoverNat: Multi-level Governance of Natural Resources: Tools and Processes for Water and Biodiversity Governance in Europe.

GoverNat is a Marie Curie Research Training Network in the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission. Its focus is research and training in all aspects of multi-level environmental governance. The 4-year project started on October 1, 2006.

The GoverNat network is comprised of 10 partner institutes throughout Europe and several affiliated praxis partners. 9 partners have a Ph.D. and 3 a Post-doc position.

GoverNat concentrates on participatory processes as means to improve environmental multi-level governance. In specific case studies of water and biodiversity governance, GoverNat researchers match the need for improvement of specific governance schemes with the potential of improvement of combined participatory and analytical approaches. Designing and ideally even implementing improved governance schemes in collaboration with praxis partners constitutes the final challenge for this research project. GoverNat researchers herewith empirically test the hypothesis that certain participatory processes improve multi-level governance.