Launched in January 2023, the Trust in Research Undertaken in Science and Technology (TRuST) network is a project exploring the concept of public trust in medical, technological and other scientific research that affects and benefits our everyday lives.
Studying trust is vital as it is so foundational to how we live and work together, and it is critical to the spirit of collaboration, innovation, and community that drives the research undertaken at the University of Waterloo. Recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting sociopolitical fallout, have thrown the issue of public trust in science sharply into focus.
This is why it is also crucial for us to engage broader communities for understanding, insight, and experience, as the very idea of trust cuts across fields of study, sectors, and societies. Trust is a relational idea that allows us to work together to address the challenges we face today and in the future.
Building on the vision of Waterloo at 100 some 30 years in the future, we take the opportunity to examine the concept of trust relating to the thousands of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the Waterloo Region community and beyond who will be impacted by what is accomplished here at the University.
President Vivek Goel’s Waterloo at 100 vision demands the evaluation of foundational concepts in an ever-changing world that constantly generates new ideas, understandings, technologies, challenges, and responsibilities. Forging new collaborations at this time of flux is vital and TRuST will be a key tool in helping us do this at the University and beyond. The first step to earning public trust in science is reflecting on the practices of research and scholarship itself in a critical way, to see how we might improve and move forward more inclusively, more thoughtfully, and more collaboratively.
As we begin this research and grow our network, we are excited for the new collaborations, research, and opportunities to listen and talk about trust.
Professor Donna Strickland and Associate Professor Lai-Tze Fan,
Co-Directors for TRuST,
September, 2023
Our Goal
To further understand trust and lack of trust in science and technology and to support ethically earning and sustaining trust in these domains.
Our Mission Statement
We're a network of people dedicated to better understanding why people do or don't trust scientific and technical information. It's a big issue, we know, and so we believe it is important to study the topic in all its complexity and richness. We approach this problem through a transdisciplinary approach, through practitioner experience, and a lot of asking questions and even more listening to a wide range of perspectives.
TRuST Scholarly Network
News
Tech adoption ‘moves at the speed of trust,’ Dean Wells says
The federal minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation likes what the University of Waterloo’s dean of engineering says about building trust and transparency in how Canada adopts AI.
9th World Conference on Research Integrity
TRuST Executive Committee Member, Dr. Kari Weaver, has been selected to co-lead the focus track program at the World Conference on Research Integrity 2026 to develop an international reporting standard for artificial intelligence disclosure in research. The work takes a participatory approach to the development of such an international reporting standard with consultation from relevant sector parties, of institutions, funders, publishers, governments, academies, regulators, libraries, AI industry, specialised research integrity bodies and specialised standardization bodies to contribute their perspective towards such a reporting standard. Culminating with stakeholder feedback at WCRI in Vancouver, BC, in May 2026, this work seeks to harmonize AI disclosure as a practice and cornerstone of honest, transparent AI use in research.
Dean Wells pays tribute to the Iron Ring's legacy
This opinion piece by Dean Mary Wells of Waterloo Engineering and Dean Suzanne Kresta of the University of Prince Edward Island's Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering recently appeared in the Globe and Mail.
Events
Trusting health care in the age of AI
From automated medical notes and AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment planning to patient self-help and deep fake doctors, artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping and challenging how health care is delivered in Canada and around the world. But as more clinical decisions and interactions are supported by algorithms, what does it mean to trust our health-care systems and the technologies innovating them?
Join the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) for a timely conversation on health and AI, moderated by Dr. Shereen El Feki, a BSIA Fellow focused on global health and human rights. Together with a computer scientist exploring AI and cancer research, a local family physician and medical advisor to multiple startups, a bioethicist working on responsible and ethical AI, and a clinician-researcher focused on global health, we will explore how AI is changing everyday care, professional practice and public confidence in medicine. This event invites the public to reflect on how we can build trustworthy, human-centred health care in an increasingly automated future.
Date |Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Time | Doors open - 6:30 p.m.
Lecture | 7:00 p.m.
Post-lecture reception | 8:30 p.m.
Location | Centre for International Governance Innovation
67 Erb Street W., Waterloo, ON