Nurullah Gur, Faculty of Business and Management Sciences at Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul/Turkey states that “Trust is one of the fundamental factors that affect the wealth of nations. When the interactions are improved by trust, this will make investments, financial markets, public expenditures, institutions, regulations, and firms more effective and development friendly.” The importance of "community" at Open Works, as revealed in "Turning Makerspaces into Greater Places," and the importance of trust present an opportunity to develop frameworks for improving inclusivity, equitable access to tools, as well as intra- and inter-institutional collaboration. The importance of trust is even more evident in places where historic distrust due to perceived and actual inequities has created barriers to equitable, collaborative economic development. The “Trust Framework for Facilitating Equitable Access to Ingepreneurial Opportunity” is offered as a potential solution.

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The 2019-2020 project will examine existing trust frameworks such as "Edelman's Trust Barometer" while developing a tool for assessing cultural composition and transparency. Our objective is to develop an instrument and process for building trust, strengthening community, and bridging divides (e.g. regional, cultural, ethnic, gender, institutional, and otherwise) for the benefit t of collaborative entrepreneurial advancement.