TRUST ’26 brings together researchers, policymakers, media professionals and institutional leaders to explore one of Europes’s most urgent questions:
How do we strenghten trust in an age of information overload, AI and societal change?
Trust is the invisible infrastructure that allows a democratic society to function. Today, however, this trust is under constant pressure due to disinformation, a skewed balance of power in data ownership, and the increasing influence of algorithms. To restore trust at the European level, we must redefine the entire TRUST stack.
This begins with revising the rules of the game: reaching agreement on how we detect, interpret, and tackle disinformation, so that cooperation shifts from reactive, fragmented initiatives to coordinated and actionable programs. Additionally, it calls for a recalibration of European governance and our democratic values regarding data ownership, algorithmic influence, and digital sovereignty. We must also redesign the technological foundations upon which our data and knowledge systems are built, while simultaneously strengthening society as a whole to become digitally skilled, critical, and resilient in an increasingly complex digital world.
Restoring trust is a systemic task. It requires an integrated approach in which innovation, policy, people, media, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure reinforce one another. Only in this way can we build a Europe that is not only connected, but also coherent and reliable.
We find ourselves in a unique position to bring together Europe’s leading companies, thinkers, and decision-makers. Together, we can develop concrete agendas and take tangible steps towards solutions. Europe’s pursuit of sovereign infrastructure is, after all, about more than technology alone. It is about ensuring that the foundations of our digital and physical world are aligned with democratic values.