Removing layers such as coatings, graffities, or (bio)fouling from surfaces is challenging because these layers by design adhere well and withstand external stimuli. New (chemical) solutions for on-demand delamination of such layers would bring the coating industry closer to circularity and enable easy to clean and safer surfaces for public spaces as well as water and sewage systems.

Rural-urban regions feel an increasing need for landscape services such as clean drinking water, recreational space and space for living and working. While these demands are greatest in cities, the potential to provide these services is greatest in rural areas. It is possible to manage this - under the right preconditions - but it does require spatial interventions, strong policies and the financial-organizational matching of supply and demand. Landscape services can thus form the necessary extra link in the transformation towards sustainability, contributing to a more beautiful landscape and fertile soils for current and future generations.

The accountability of governance arrangements for climate adaptation is little theorized, let alone having benefitted from empirical work to investigate what it entails in practice and under what conditions it is achieved. This is particularly the case with respect to the increased proliferation of digital forms of governance. This study examines the implications for accountability within adaptation planning and policy of e-musrenbang, a digital governance tool utilised in Indonesia, focusing on districts of Surabaya exposed to coastal flooding and sea-level rise. It will provide greater understanding of how accountability can be enhanced across a range of similar contexts.

From Spoken Audio to Digital Identities: How AI impacts the interpretation of information communicated by the sound of voice in asylum procedures. A research project exploring how the datafication of speech acoustics can be used for purposes of algorithmic profiling and control. The project examines how the German and Turkish immigration agencies harness the use of accent recognition in asylum procedures to determine the identity and country of origin of undocumented asylum seekers. It shows how the sound of voice becomes a new site for the construction of identities and the control of borders.

One of the often-cited determinants of state legitimacy and overall government performance is the interface between politicians and bureaucrats, in other words: the balance between (a) political control over the bureaucracy to ensure democratically accountable governance, and (b) the insulation from political intervention in administrative business to ensure quality and effectiveness. While increasing politicization, i.e. the existence of political elements in otherwise apolitical government bureaucracies is often reported as a general trend, our empirical knowledge as to the causes and consequences or this phenomenon is patchy and contradictory. This project will answer the question under what circumstances politicization is more likely to occur than others and what impact politicization has on government legitimacy and performance, by investigating four policy sectors in 14 OECD countries in Europe, North America and East Asia. The project is original and innovative both theoretically and methodologically. From a theoretical perspective, a broad comparative research project that connects politicization not only with its causes, but also with its consequences, is novel. A new and integrative index of politicization facilitates cross-national comparative research. A new set of hypotheses, combining country-, government- and sector-level variables, will be tested. From a methodological perspective, the application of multi-value qualitative comparative analysis (mvQCA) to politicization has not been done before and enables a larger-N approach, leading to more generalizable findings. Collaboration with international organizations and local partners in the 14 countries is a key element of the study. The findings will shed empirical light on the sources, incentives and impediments of civil service politicization, and its harm or benefits to ?good governance?. This knowledge fills an important gap in the body of knowledge of Public Administration and Political Science, and will provide the policy community with better-informed avenues to respond to decreasing trust in government and decreasing policy effectiveness.