Benedikt Herrmann worked for years on the decentralisation reform in Ukraine in a diplomatic function at the EU Delegation in Kyiv. He now is project leader working on territorial development at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Previously Benedikt Herrmann led the behavioural economic team of the Joint Research Centre. As a researcher at the Kennedy School of Government and the University of Nottingham, Benedikt Herrmann published prominently on the nature of trust, cooperation, and competition behaviour.