The platform on institutional credibility builds on preceding projects supported by the European Research Council and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Its earliest beginnings go back to ProLAND, a project for training and advice to the Chinese government for a quintessential institution: the cadastre. The cadastre plays a pivotal role in the transaction of land, housing and resources. To establish a cadastre, titling or the registration of property rights has become a high priority as the Chinese government aims to allow the free transfer of land. In the process of titling, resource-poor citizens and farmers may be at risk of losing assets or being marginalized, which therefore necessitates careful and gradualist implementation.

Minister Jacqueline Cramer and Secretary General Hans van der Vlist of the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Environment and Spatial Planning (VROM) visited the ProLAND titling project. During her visit, Minister Cramer witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Dutch Cadastre and the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources coordinated by Prof. Ho.

Signing of the MoU in the presence of Vice Minister Wang Shiyuan, Minister Jacqueline Cramer, Zhou Jianchun, Director-General China Land Surveying & Planning Institute, Dorine Burmanje, Chair of the Board, Dutch Cadastre and Prof. Peter Ho.

The ProLAND project was later succeed by the RECOLAND project, which developed the theoretical and methodological basis for policies on land, housing and resources. Policy tools developed and extensively field-tested during this project include the Conflict Analysis Model (CAM) and the Formal, Actual and Targeted (FAT) Framework, which assesses divergences between what states formally profess their institutions do; what these actually do; and what people target they ought to do.

In a letter by Minister Hu Cunzhi to Minister Schultz-van Haagen, the PI of the RECOLAND project was entrusted with the drafting and coordination of the bilateral Sino-Dutch Memorandum of Understanding on Spatial Planning and Titling, later signed by the competent Ministers of The Netherlands and China.