As part of the Water Policy Innovation Hub, on 8^th July 2022 a workshop was held on governance of models and modelling at the Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Modelling for water policy and beyond has reached a stage of adoption in which models frequently have an institutionalized role in policy design, project approvals, and compliance, amongst other decision-making contexts both directly in government and in supporting consulting and research. As such, the stakes for good modelling practice have increased, requiring both formalization of practices and attention to avoiding lock-in and enabling adoption of modelling innovations in the longer term.

Recent research includes social science studies of modelling practice and action research in modelling practice change. Formalisation of model management and model governance can be seen as a form of modelling of modelling processes, which in turn raises the need to apply modelling best practice to how we represent and reason about the complex systems involved in modelling itself.

While recognizing that different jurisdictions and contexts will have different needs and solutions for these problems, the aim of this workshop was to support coordination of research efforts internationally, including in Europe, USA, and Australia to 1) anticipate and better understand issues and opportunities involved in institutionalization and/or government use of modelling, 2) develop shared methods, tools, and initiatives to support improved model management and governance.

The full briefing paper is linked below.