Dovilė Rimkutė is an Associate Professor of Public Administration specializing in Regulatory Governance. Her research addresses fundamental questions surrounding regulatory governance and risk regulation within the EU's multi-layered governance system. Her work is organized around three key research areas: (1) bureaucratic decision-making and behavior (e.g., to what extent bureaucratic responsiveness to grave societal risks is affected by reputational considerations); (2) citizens' legitimacy perceptions (e.g., what are the effects of expertise-based and reputation-sourced authority on citizens' perceptions of regulators' legitimacy); (3) the role of emotion in regulator-citizen interactions (e.g., what are the effects of emotions on how regulators issue regulatory rules and how citizens receive them).
Dovilė has been awarded NWO Veni (2019) and Vidi (2024) grants to conduct research at the intersection of regulatory governance and behavioral public administration, integrating insights from affective science. In her Veni project (€250.000), “Risk Regulation in the European Regulatory State: Science-Based or Reputation-Induced?” (2020-2024), she utilized experimental and qualitative methodologies to examine whether risks to society are underregulated or overregulated due to significant reputational risks to regulators, as well as how regulators' efforts are perceived and legitimized by relevant stakeholders. This project addressed issues of critical societal importance, including: the European Medicines Agency's legitimacy in authorizing vaccines during the global pandemic; the perceived legitimacy of the European Food Safety Authority in authorizing the controversial pesticide glyphosate, which is alleged to be carcinogenic; and the European Central Bank's reputation in light of its expanding mandate, covering sustainability goals and the EU's green agenda.
In the Vidi project (€850.000), “Emotion Infused Risk Regulation: Rethinking the fundamentals of Regulation for Citizen-Centric Rule-Making” (2024-2029), her research team seeks to study how regulatory rules and communications can be better tailored to meet the cognitive and emotional needs of citizens. By integrating psychological theories of emotion, the team examines the impact of emotions on (1) regulatory rule formulation and communication and (2) citizens' compliance with science-based rules.
Her work has been published in international public administration and political science journals, including Public Administration Review (PAR), Governance, Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP), Public Administration (PA), Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS), and New Political Economy (NPE), and has received peer recognition (e.g., Majone Prize Honorary Mention, 2023; Jean Monnet Fellowship at the EUI, 2022-2023).
Dovilė's scholarly work has a demonstrated policy impact. She, for instance, conducted a study on the risk regulation of pesticides commissioned by The European Parliamentary Research Service to provide the European Parliament (EP) with evidence-based recommendations on how pesticide regulation (Regulation 1107/2009) could be improved. The results were presented and discussed at the EP committee meetings and hearings.
Dovilė is on the editorial board of the Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP) and serves as a co-director of the "Politics of Bureaucracy" section at the ECPR General Conference.
