Focus is on public sector organizations of different forms (ranging from core governmental units over different kinds of agencies to state-owned companies and governmental foundations and public private partnerships, as well as agencies at supra-governmental level). Central issues under study are the autonomy and control of such organizations, their management, identities, roles, performance and accountability, and their coordination. This will lead to empirical, theoretical and methodological advances in the field.

Study Group chairs are Sandra Van Thiel (Radboud University, Nijmegen), Per Laegreid (University of Bergen) & Koen Verhoest (Leuven University).