Governments in Europe, South Africa, and Australia see universities as key institutions for maintaining democratic societies. But in how far do universities, in their daily operations, really promote democracy? DRU addresses questions like how to resist internal 'democratic backsliding' and strengthen democratic values, participatory governance, research, education and civic engagement? 

Bettina Langfeldt and Tim Seidenschnur will lead the project group at INCHER and Tim Seidenschnur will lead the work package on governance in the network. 

The project includes academic partners like the University of Porto (where Amélia Veiga leads the network being the speaker of DRU), the University of Toulouse, Aarhus University, Rhodes University, Deakin University and others as well as non-academic partners like the Assumption Development Centre Makhanda in South Africa, the Magna Charta Universitatum in Bologna, EURODOC in Brussels and others. 

The program will start in February 2026.