The challenges society faces today demand policies informed by scientific innovation. In this era of climate change and pandemics, scientists have entered the ring of politicians, diplomats, and policymakers as brokers of solutions and agents of change. However, the events of recent years have not been a triumphant story of scientific leadership; instead, they’ve been a warning bell signalling the decline of trust in science and the institutions which promote it. VERITY seeks to understand the factors undermining public trust in science and create a protocol of recommendations institutions and policymakers can use to improve trust in their work.

VERITY combines multidisciplinary expertise, both from the social sciences and engineering, to synthesise existing knowledge to evaluate tools and methods for enhancing trust in science through original research and small-scale participatory activities, before producing the VERITY Protocol of Recommendations for "stewards of trust".

VERITY brings forward interdisciplinary expertise to perform network analysis and execute interventions on social media, to validate the VERITY Protocol and alleviate practical barriers for its uptake in practice by different stakeholders. VERITY findings will be widely disseminated to different "stewards of trust", such as policymakers, research funding and performing organisations, higher education institutions and other research and innovation actors, to enhance societal trust in science and facilitate science-society co-creation.