We have something to celebrate! When it’s time for the holidays, we have an extra party at Populytics. Because Populytics celebrates its birthday and turns 1! And of course we would like to share this milestone with you.

A lot has happened in the past year. We have advised organizations, companies and government bodies on their policy with the help of more than 50,000 Dutch people. And that’s something to be proud of! We also stood out in the media with our projects. For example, our research on corona measures appeared several times in the Dutch national media this summer. The highlight is a publication in Linda Magazine about our consultation on the medical inspection of driving license holders 🙂.

But a lot has also happened within the organization. For example, we opened our first office in Leiden and we were able to hire the first permanent employees. In addition, we had a highlight with our software developers where we built our software from the ground up and have now created a scalable first version of the Wevaluate platform!

The year has flown by, thanks in part to all those who, like us, believe in the benefits of involving citizens in policy making. That is why we want to put our partners in the spotlight: TU Delft, Public Mediation, Councyl and the Nederlands Platform Burgerparticipatie en Overheidsbeleid. Thank you for your support and cooperation!

And of course we would like to thank all the people who took part in the studies and who shared their visions, ideas and considerations with us. We can’t wait to get even more input from you with the deployment of Wevaluate in the coming year.

Now it’s time to relax and enjoy. We wish everyone happy holidays and a happy new year!

Today, Minister Visser of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management presented the report of the Populytics consultation on the medical examination of driving license holders to the House of Representatives. This report contains the results of a consultation in which 6.681 Dutch people advise on the medical examination of driving license holders.

Download the report with the results of this consultation here (in Dutch).

Some people are able to drive less safely due to their health. This may be because they are able to see less or react less quickly to their environment, or because they are taking medicines that make them less alert. To find out who has difficulty with driving safely, there is a system to test people’s medical fitness to drive. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management wanted to find out to what extent this system should be changed, according to citizens. That is why Populytics organized a large-scale consultation in the summer of 2021 in which 6.881 citizens participated. Participants advised on the current structure of the system and advised on seven possible options for adapting the system.

The consultation on the medical fitness to drive system was well received by participants. 75% of the participants thought this was a good way to involve Dutch people in choices about laws and regulations and 78% of the participants thought that the government should use our consultation method more often to involve Dutch people in government policy.

A large part of the Dutch population has now been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the pressure on healthcare has decreased in recent months. How the virus will develop in the coming months is uncertain. Will COVID-19 remain manageable in the coming months or will the number of infections and hospital admissions rise again quickly in the coming months? 

The future corona policy 

The government would like to be properly prepared for different developments of the virus. On behalf of the RIVM, Populytics is conducting a consultation in which all Dutch people aged 18 and older are given the opportunity to voice their thoughts and opinions on which factors they consider important when taking corona measures in different scenarios. 

Structure of the consultation

In the first part, participants are presented with a possible development of the coronavirus six different times. For example, “the virus remains manageable” or “there is a new, more contagious variant that the vaccines work less well against”. In each situation, participants are shown 2 packages of measures, including the effects of these measures (for example, effect on the number of infections and the number of admissions to the IC). You are always asked to advise one of the two packages. Opponents of corona policy can also indicate that they believe that no measure should be introduced. Finally, participants are asked why they consider certain measures acceptable or unacceptable.