TRUST is a research project - financed by the BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) and the ESF (European Social Fund) -  in which an interdisciplinary team, con-sisting of social scientists, mechanical engineers, process optimizers and industrial partners, is investigating the impact of trust in team work. The research group takes into consideration the complexity of trust and its appearance on different levels of collaborative product development. The group acts on the assumption that different technical, organizational and social areas have to be taken into account when exploring issues of trust. The research project will operate for a 3-year period and has started in 2009.