In recent years, the ground beneath public life has shifted. Social and political trust is eroding, consensus has become an outlier, and evidence (once the currency of serious debate) too often appears dismissed, manipulated, or ignored. In such a context, one question arises with urgency: are think tanks still trustworthy and relevant actors?
At the 2024 OTT Conference in Barcelona, Ismael Palacín of the Bofill Foundation, in his keynote Do think tanks need to start rebuilding trust gave voice to this unease when he asked: “Can think tanks still be useful? What happens when our recommendations no longer work in practice?” His provocation struck a nerve. If influence relies on trust, what happens when trust itself is absent?
This is the challenge and the opportunity that will define the 2026 OTT Conference. Trust will not be treated as an abstract ideal, but as a condition that determines whether think tanks can continue to shape the policy world. What is trust? Trust in what or whom, and why does it matter?
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Trust, after all, is not declared but awarded. It is built through credibility, reliability, and recognition by others. In its simplest form, it is the confidence to say: “I trust you to do your job.” This statement extends across public life: trust in evidence, policymakers, communities, and institutions. Andrea Baertl in De-constructing credibility mentions Carl Hovland’s definition of credibility as the ‘believability of a communicator’, reminding us that it is the audience, not the speaker, who decides whether someone is trustworthy.
For institutions, trust is not just a value but a condition for existence. Without it, reputation collapses, credibility vanishes, and legitimacy erodes. The Edelman Trust Barometer describes trust as “the ultimate currency” of society, the very license to operate, lead, and succeed. Yet, the 2025 Edelman global report reveals a stark warning: 61% of people worldwide feel a moderate or high sense of grievance, believing that governments and businesses make their lives harder, serve narrow interests, and allow the wealthy to benefit unfairly while regular people struggle.
For think tanks, credibility and, therefore, trust, are everything. As Baertl emphasises, credibility determines whether policymakers listen, networks open their doors, the media quote, or donors support. It is assessed in many ways: through independence and transparency, research quality and expertise, the networks they join, the values they embody, and the broader political and social context.
The Cast from Clay interview What does it take to be a trusted advisor reinforces this point: experts remain among the most trusted voices on pressing issues like climate change. But trust is earned not just by expertise, but by showing the ability “to do, think, and say.” It grows through transparency, careful listening, and delivering on promises.
Even in fragile democracies, governments that manage to sustain trust do so by providing consistent services or invoking shared values, demonstrating that trust remains central to legitimacy across diverse political systems. For think tanks, however, the challenge is sharper. They are not elected, and their legitimacy as policy influencers is questioned: Who do they represent? Why should they be trusted more than politicians or activists? Their survival depends on convincing others that their independence is real, their expertise rigorous, their networks inclusive, and their work relevant to people’s lives, not confined to elite circles.
Finally, trust is not only reshaping the future of work within organisations but also redefining how institutions collaborate. The rise of hybrid models has made it clear that outcomes, rather than physical presence, are now the true measure of performance; yet, this shift only works when leadership places confidence in its teams. Strict controls often reveal a lack of trust, while granting autonomy empowers people to commit and excel. The same principle applies beyond the workplace: trust is the foundation of effective collaboration among organisations and diverse actors, which is so needed in today’s era of scarcity. As Owusu-Gyamfi reminded in her keynote at the 2025 OTT Conference, no institution can or should do everything alone; instead, embracing “co-competition” by sharing strengths, infrastructure, and messaging enables greater collective influence. Just as motivation and performance flourish in an environment of mutual trust, so too does the impact of think tanks, measured not only in citations but in the trust relations they build and sustain.
These are the questions at the heart of the 2026 OTT Conference. Together, we will explore how trust is built, lost, and rebuilt. We will ask: Is trust earned, negotiated, contested? How can think tanks move from being seen as distant elites to becoming credible actors in public debate? What strategies work when governments actively sow mistrust by labelling think tanks as elitist, foreign, or anti-national? What can be done when civil society perceives them as detached, technocratic, or dominated by elites? And is it a lack of trust behind the burdensome reporting requirements funders impose?
If trust is indeed the “ultimate currency,” then think tanks must learn not only how to earn it, but how to spend it wisely. The 2026 OTT Conference is an invitation to join this critical conversation: to shape a collective understanding of trust, and to ensure that think tanks remain trustworthy in a world where trust itself is under siege.