On 13 November 2025, the annual off-site day of the Netherlands Institute of Government (NIG) took place in Utrecht. Together with colleagues from Ghent University, the REDRESS team chairs a colloquium on democratic innovations. The colloquium organised a workshop during the off-site day with Stephen Elstub, Professor of Democratic Politics at Newcastle University, as a keynote speaker. Stephen is co-editor of the Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance (2019), of which a second edition will be launched next year, and of the recently published open-access volume Climate Assemblies: New Civic Institutions for a Climate-changed World (2025).

In his keynote, Elstub outlined a future research agenda for democratic innovations, structured around five key themes:

1 – Greater attention within climate assemblies to adaptation to a changing climate
2 – Democratising (climate) citizens’ assemblies, for example by giving participants influence over the remit of the assembly and the selection of experts
3 – Studying democratic innovations across the globe, including understudied cases
4 – Enhancing public engagement, for instance in agenda-setting, the information phase and ratification of outcomes — a theme which closely aligns with REDRESS research
5 – Institutionalising (climate) citizens’ assemblies, with attention to both opportunities and pitfalls, including the risk of capture

Following the keynote, the two major research projects — REDRESS and the Local Democracy project from Ghent — presented their findings, lessons learned and future research avenues.

After a lunch provided by NIG, the afternoon programme involved an interactive session in which participants from seven different universities and various career stages discussed the future research agenda for democratic innovations. The diverse group made for a rich and fruitful dialogue about directions for the field.