Our project partners
newDemocracy is first and foremost a research organisation. Our principal interest is to ensure citizens trust government decision making.
We do this by working with governments to design and operate public engagement projects that enable everyday people to contribute to reaching shared and trusted recommendations around challenging areas of public policy. We seek to work exclusively with government decision-making and not for private individuals or companies.
How we seek out projects
We respond directly to the needs of government entities, exploring and testing process designs, methods of operational oversight and advising on best-practice deliberation. We are not a commercial company or consultancy. We do not directly respond to bids, tenders, expressions of interest (EOI) or requests for quotation (RFQ).
When approached by a government entity which is issuing an EOI or RFQ, we encourage them to include a recommendation in their tender documents that respondents may wish to consider a role for newDemocracy as an optional component of their response. In this circumstance, we offer the same terms and conditions to all interested respondents in relation to our potential role and the services and research grant which will apply to the project.
These terms and conditions are made publicly available.
If a successful proponent has included a role for newDemocracy in their response, we will work with them as a project partner but our relationship is always directly with the government entity concerned and newDemocracy will not have any contractual relationship outside of this.
Notwithstanding this, newDemocracy retains the right to decline to work with organisations where our research and development objectives are deemed unlikely to be advanced.
How we collaborate outside our projects
newDemocracy recognises that from time to time, government entities or project partners with whom we work may wish to extend their contact and relationship with the people who participate in a project.
If this is an opportunity to continue democratic research and development, it is welcomed by newDemocracy. Nevertheless, it is important that the rights of the people who participated in the project are protected, particularly in relation to their personal data and the commitment of time and involvement they make.
When a government entity or project partner wishes to extend their collaboration with participants, newDemocracy will apply the following approach:
- newDemocracy will not supply juror details directly to a partner until participants have agreed to this taking place. newDemocracy will make all initial contact and may seek their permission to provide details or recommending an opt-in arrangement for subsequent contact;
- newDemocracy can encourage participants to consider opportunities which may be provided through the collaboration, and will also encourage participants to continue their relationship with newDemocracy;
- Details of all collaborations will be transparently shared via newDemocracy’s website and other means as appropriate; and
- newDemocracy and the partner may continue to use collaborations to contribute to the exploration of fundamental change to democracy through the exploration of complementary roles for everyday people.
Further specifics of ongoing collaborations are considered on a case by case basis. They may incur a project management fee for newDemocracy to cover costs.
newDemocracy also collaborates with a range of other organisations for financial or in-kind support. Details of these relationships are outlined on our funding page.