Transforming Evidence is an multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral, international community. We aim to connect individuals and organisations who generate, share and use evidence. Our community members include academics, policymakers, practitioners and funders, as well as journalists, think tanks and intermediaries.
What do we do?
We bring together a community of expertise around evidence production, sharing and use. This expertise is sometimes confined to individual disciplines, sectors or countries. Transforming Evidence works to understand what is already known across these spaces and develop collaborative research projects to address unanswered questions. We share learning widely. Our work helps colleagues to identify gaps in understanding, and it can support funding applications to research those gaps.
Why are we needed?
Society is underpowered to tackle the challenges that face us and governments. We are not making the most of vast and increasing investment in knowledge production. And we have little consolidated knowledge, or practices in place, to support a shared understanding about how research can more effectively address social problems. Transforming Evidence tackles these issues by trying to understand how to produce, share and use evidence well - in particular, by connecting expertise and creating space for new conversations. We publish our learning and foster a vibrant community.
Who benefits?
All academics, funders, decision-makers and publics have a stake in this conversation. We aim to help research funding, in the long run, to have greater impact. We share inter-disciplinary learning, which can help research to focus on key unanswered questions and can help funders and researchers to achieve greater impact from research. Our work provides insights into relationships between research, decision-making and practice. That should also help intermediaries who facilitate cross-sector relationships.
Our workstreams:
- Sharing existing knowledge and best practice about evidence use, drawing out key lessons from STS, public policy, development, health and beyond.
- Connecting communities across sectors and globally, to create networks and identify and address new questions.
- Working with decision-makers about how to make better use of evidence, building capacity and supporting creating use
- Generating new research on evidence production and use, building on what we already know and ensuring that transdisciplinary collaboration flourishes.