Emily Hayter (INASP) highlights some fundamental challenges faced by African policymakers when it comes to using research, based on the experiences of participants in the VakaYiko programme. These must be addressed by those wishing to build capacity for civil servants...

Academic institutions are producing high quality, highly trusted social science data but this isn’t always translated into policy and practice. Why are universities not having the impact on social policy that we might expect? How can universities...

  A new NPC evidence review highlights the value of the voluntary and community sector to the health and care system. But the evidence alone won’t be enough to ensure that these important services continue to reach everyone...

  The ONS is piloting the use of new data sources such as social media in the census, writes Jason Leavey.  But don’t expect changes to be implemented anytime soon. The Office for National Statistics could incorporate...

  Martin Smith (Specialist, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee) invites you to check the evidence behind three new policy areas announced today. In true scientific fashion, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has...

Dr Kathryn Oliver (University of Oxford) argues that we need a clearer understanding of who is already influencing policy, and how, if we want to increase the role of academic evidence in policymaking. It’s easy – and...

Howard White (Campbell Collaboration) examines whether DRIVE, an Intimate Partner Violence programme being piloted in the UK, will be conducted in a way that will generate useful and much-needed evidence. BBC News recently carried a story on a...

On 8 March 2016 the Alliance for Useful Evidence hosted a discussion on the politics of evidence-based policy making, to coincide with the launch of Professor Paul Cairney’s book. Here Paul argues that when presenting evidence...

Dr Stefanie Ettelt and Professor Nicholas Mays (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) share their simple tips for ensuring that policy pilots generate useful evidence. Piloting of public policy is almost universally seen as a...

Genevieve Maitland Hudson (Osca) explains how, despite significant spending on research, Kids Company lacked evidence of its own impact.  Not all research is equally important to social programmes. This isn’t only a matter of the standard of...