draft agenda - european commission · this meeting is organised by the oecd public governance...
TRANSCRIPT
26-27 June 2017OECD Conference Centre
Governing better through evidence-informed policy making
Draft Agenda
International Network
for GovernmentScience Advice
Contacts:
Participants interested in registering for the meeting can follow the registration link or contact [email protected]
Questions related to the programme can be addressed to:
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Context
There is a growing demand for high quality inclusive public services as well as increased public scrutiny of government spending. Decision makers are facing the need to reach timely decisions in an increasingly volatile, uncertain and complex environment. Policy making nowadays involves the entanglement of formal and informal actors. As a result there are multiple pathways for evidence to feed into the policy and decision making processes. However, there is a need to ensure that quality evidence can effectively feed into policy and decision making processes, which contributes to the effectiveness of public interventions, achieving inclusive growth, and to rebuild trust in public institutions and science.
In some areas, evidence gaps remain where further investment in understanding what works is necessary. In other areas, evidence exists, but is poorly used, insufficiently shared or not systematically organised. There is great potential to mobilise an Evidence Driven approach, drawing on the ‘What Works’ experience, to strengthen knowledge management and improve science brokerage. The goal is to ensure better governance through evidence-informed policy making. This requires leveraging large bodies of evidence, systematically reviewing the information, enabling networks, fostering innovative methods, facilitating the actual use and uptake of evidence, and closely cooperating with decision makers to understand their needs.
Evidence-based policy is at the heart of the OECD’s mission and represents a critical step towards better public governance. Over 2014-2016, the OECD undertook steps to develop analytical work on policy advisory systems, and has been developing a toolkit for policy making as part of its contribution to evidence-informed policy. Previous to this, an OECD Public Governance Symposium in 2012 discussed strengthening the evidence base on governance for more effective policymaking. In the 2015 OECD Public Governance Ministerial Meeting, Ministers again recognised the need for a continuous effort to develop policy-relevant evidence on government performance that is robust and comparable. The ‘Daejeon Declaration on Science, Technology, and Innovation Policies for the Global and Digital Age’, further to the OECD 2015 Ministerial on Science Innovation and Policy, recognises that science is important to inform policies and decision making in a range of areas, such as public welfare, long-term environmental issues and crisis management of disasters. In addition, the OECD is also conducting work to analyse policy evaluation in general, with an upcoming survey aimed at assessing whole-of-government evaluation practices that foster robust evidence-based policy making.
Goal of the meeting
The meeting will offer a unique opportunity to promote a dialogue on evidence-informed policy. It should help identify how governments can systematically include high-quality evidence in policy and decision making, and establish a culture of using evidence in practice. The meeting is intended to result in an action plan for the OECD to take this agenda forward.
Participants will have the unique opportunity to discuss many different aspects of evidence-informed policy making in informal group sessions, to share best practices and to network on an international scale. A better understanding of how evidence can be used in a timely and effective way by governments is necessary to promote the uptake of evidence. Connecting evidence and policy is complex, but also necessary to make sure that policies work for citizens.
Participation
Participation is open to government representatives in the public governance arena, experts from public think tanks, agencies, NGOs and academia interested in public sector reform and bringing evidence and science to bear on decision making. They are invited to discuss the challenges they face in connecting evidence to policy, to share expertise and best-practices and to collaborate in promoting a culture of evidence-informed policy making.
This meeting is organised by the OECD Public Governance Directorate, in cooperation with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the Campbell Collaboration and the International Network for Government Science Advice.
Reference documents
The documentation will include an OECD project proposal to advance this agenda.
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Monday, 26 June 2017
8:45 Welcome coffee
9:00 – 9:30 Opening remarks
Rolf Alter, Director for Public Governance, OECD
Charlina Vitcheva, Deputy Director General of DG JRC, European Commission
9:30 – 10:00 Evidence and politics: feeding evidence into political decision making
This session will discuss how to increase the demand and uptake of evidence in political decision making. The erosion of trust in public institutions, in experts, and in the science community is resulting in new challenges for policy making, with implications for both the demand and supply of evidence. The successful uptake of high-quality, unbiased evidence at the political level requires key institutional features which need to be better understood. Installing checks and balances can ensure that decisions are based on the best available evidence and limit the cherry-picking of convenient information.
In the area of regulatory policy, ex ante regulatory impact assessments (RIA) complemented by ex post assessment offers a first step in feeding evidence into cabinet and high-level political discussion, and in ensuring a framework for political accountability. However, despite positive intentions, practice often lags far behind.
The panel will address the challenges that still stand in the way of ensuring the uptake of evidence at the political level, and will discuss the needs of decision makers as well as the different approaches and types of organisations improving the effective use and impact of evidence in political decision making.
Keynote Speakers
Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General, Finnish National Agency for Education, Former State Secretary, Finnish Ministry of Finance
Philip Rycroft, Second Permanent Secretary and Head of the UK Governance Group, Cabinet Office
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10:00 – 11:30 Group discussions
How to ensure the uptake of evidence at the political level?
Supporting evidence-informed decision-making at the political level requires a better understanding of the enablers. This session will offer participants the opportunity to discuss in smaller groups the different techniques to communicate and to enhance the demand for evidence at the political level.
Format: Participants will divide into smaller groups to discuss what is needed to grow the demand for evidence in government, particularly at the political level. This will include the different institutional processes, capacities, and methods governments can invest in to improve the use evidence at the political level. They will discuss inter alia the following questions:
Necessity of evidence: What are the benefits of using evidence in decision making at the political level? Are there any obstacles – perceived or otherwise?
Meeting demand: What tools and communication techniques could be used to better meet the demand of evidence by political decision makers?
Evidence mismatch: What is the difference between supply and demand of evidence at the political level? How to create a convincing narrative when facing complex and partial results?
Institutional set-up: What kind of institutional and process changes are needed to ensure the uptake of evidence?
Following the group discussions, the results will be brought back in the plenary.
11:30 – 11:45 Coffee break
11:45 – 13:00 Interactive session
Using evidence in practice: engaging with decision makers
Decision makers will need evidence at the right time and in the right format to be able to use it to make well-informed decisions. The way in which evidence is presented is an important part of the ‘what works’ approach.
This session will discuss how to ensure decision makers have access to and effectively use evidence. Discussion will focus on how evidence can be produced and presented, taking into account decision-makers’ needs, in an aim to stimulate its uptake.
The session will start with short presentations from experts in supplying and presenting evidence for practical use, and from decision makers that have experience in using evidence.
Kick-off Speaker
Steve Martin, Director, Public Policy Institute for Wales
Kenichi Tsukahara, Professor, Kyushu University
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Participants will then divide into small groups to work on identifying specific hallmarks of mobilisation of evidence by decision makers. These discussions will be based on the following questions:
Decision makers’ needs: What kind of evidence is important for decision making? How can we prepare timely evidence that is context specific and can address needs of decision makers?
Presentation: How should evidence be presented to ensure its uptake?
Priority features: What are the most important features of evidence that should be highlighted to facilitate more and quicker uptake by decision makers?
13:00 – 14:15 Lunch break
14:15 – 15:15 International cooperation on evidence-informed policy making
Access to evidence can be enhanced through international cooperation. Harnessing, sharing, promoting, and diffusing evidence will benefit from international networks. However, linking the supply of evidence on an international scale has its challenges. When networks share results, it is important to understand how these can be applied in the local context in order to mobilise evidence effectively when needed.
In the academic arena, the Campbell and Cochrane Libraries are examples of evidence databases that conduct systematic reviews on an international scale. They work with researchers and policymakers around the world and publish information openly online. By scaling up the supply of evidence, the information becomes more robust and efficient. While these networks connect analysts and researchers, closing the final loop to involve policymakers and decision makers often remains a challenge.
The International Government Science Network (INGSA) provides a forum for policy makers, practitioners, and academics to share experience, build capacity and develop theoretical and practical approaches to the use of scientific evidence in informing policy at all levels of government.
This session will discuss how to better leverage and connect the existing international networks that exist – either in the natural sciences, economic and social sciences, development policy or behavioural insights – to improve their effectiveness and diffuse their results. The discussion will address the following aspects:
Barriers to sharing evidence: What is preventing the sharing of evidence on a global scale? What are the opportunities of Open Science?
National relevance: How can international networks for evidence create results that are relevant at the local level?
Synergies: How can we best define the respective roles and synergies among existing international networks in facilitating access to evidence and spreading its use, particularly within government?
Diffusion: How can we create improved and more systematic diffusion channels, including web-based repository and search systems, so that evidence can be more easily accessible?
Facilitating role: What can be the role of the OECD in this arena as an international network or facilitator of networks on evidence?
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Chair: Sir John Elvidge, Chair, Carnegie UK Trust
Panellists
Howard White, Chief Executive Officer, Campbell Collaboration
James Wilsdon, Vice President of INGSA, Professor, University of Sheffield
15:15 – 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 – 17:30 Thematic interactive sessions
In the proposed thematic breakout sessions, participants will identify how and what kind of evidence is necessary to inform policy and practice in the areas of early childhood intervention, access to justice, well-being and risk and crisis management.
The breakouts will follow a common structure. They will start with introductory presentations by experts in the policy field, who will share their experience and the role that evidence plays in it. Afterwards, the various sessions will engage in an interactive discussion in a workshop style by subgroups. These sessions are designed to identify linkages, common challenges, as well as the unique features of evidence in the different fields.
Each discussion will be shaped around the following set of questions:
Demand and supply of evidence: what kind of information is missing (evidence gaps) to inform better policies in this area?
Presenting evidence: how should the evidence that is available be transformed to fit the needs of evidence users?
Using and linking data: what are the opportunities for expanding the “data frontier”, through open data and through improved use of administrative data? What are the challenges in using and linking data to improve the quality of evidence?
Role of the OECD: what can the OECD do to facilitate better production and distribution of evidence in this area?
Impact assessment: what kind of evidence is needed to be able to prove whether a policy intervention actually made a difference?
The policy areas that will be discussed are:
1. Early childhood intervention
Far too many children do not get the best possible start in life, which has important consequences for the rest of their life. Differences in access to quality formal education, as well as pre-school education and care in particular mean that there is no equality of opportunity across children.
Early life interventions are critical to build cognitive, non-cognitive (which include personality traits, preferences, etc.) and social skills and therefore to promote equal opportunities across children. However, policy solutions can only be effective if they also reflect the changing family and social environments where children grow and develop.
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Using an evidence-informed approach is vital on this topic. With knowledge on the root causes and warning signs, small interventions early on can help prevent inequalities that emerge early in life – which is much more cost-effective than trying to solve the after-effects.
To achieve an evidence-informed approach to early childhood intervention, the right kind of questions need to be asked. Furthermore, the right kind of information and data needs to be gathered to form a robust evidence base.
Panellists
Robyn Mildon, Executive Director, Centre for Evidence and Implementation, Australia
Tom McBride, Director of Evidence, Early Intervention Foundation, United Kingdom
Majella McCloskey, Centre for Effective Services, Ireland/Northern Ireland
This session will be moderated by Olivier Thevenon and Monika Queisser (OECD).
2. Access to justice
The OECD is actively seeking to better understand, track and help to improve effective access to justice for all citizens. People-focused legal and justice services aim to intervene at an early stage of legal problems and to facilitate prevention of legal problems. This requires a shift away from formal mechanisms toward earlier identification of legal problems of individuals for timely assistance. Such early interventions can prevent legal problems from escalating which can become a drag for individuals and economies. An evidence-based approach to this topic involves looking for the early signs of potential legal problems and the barriers to accessing justice. Effective early and “timely” interventions require, among others, pre-planning and needs analyses, including the possibility of reaching out to clients who otherwise would not have received legal assistance and linking with them. As individuals may face a range of social problems, linking interventions across policy areas (health, social care, welfare, housing) may benefit from data sharing and identifying the data linkages. This requires asking the right questions and developing careful evidence-based strategies to identify the right moment for “intervention” and the ways to maximise their impact.
Panellists
Cris Coxon, Head of Civil and Administrative Justice Research, Ministry of Justice, United Kingdom
Ines Hartwig, DG Justice and Consumer, European Commission
Christopher L. Griffin, Research Director, Access to Justice Lab, Harvard Law School
This session will be moderated by Tatyana Teplova (OECD).
3. Well-being
Putting people at the centre of public policy also means putting people at the centre of the evidence used to guide policy decisions. Well-being is about the outcomes that shape people’s lives: it includes material conditions (such as income and wealth, jobs and earnings, and housing) and quality of life (such as health, education, work-life balance, environment, social connections, civic engagement, safety, and subjective well-being).
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The past decade has seen significant progress in the measurement of well-being, particularly within national statistics. The OECD Better Life Initiative has also played a leading role through work to develop better metrics, as well as regular reporting and analysis of well-being outcomes. Collectively, this activity is providing a richer picture of the conditions that people live in, and how they experience their lives – including how this varies across communities within countries. But better data alone cannot produce better policies. While important data gaps remain, there is also a need for more comprehensive work on the drivers of well-being, and a strengthening of the uptake of well-being evidence throughout government. This will be a crucial part of delivering more inclusive growth, contributing to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Agenda, and improving the overall quality of people’s lives.
Panellists
Nancy Hey, Director What Works Centre for Wellbeing, United Kingdom
Roger Halliday, Chief Statistician, Scottish Government, United Kingdom
Michaela Saisana, Senior Scientific Officer Leader of the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards (COIN), DG JRC, European Commission
Jennifer Wallace, Head of Policy, Carnegie Trust, United Kingdom
This session will be moderated by Carrie Exton (OECD).
4. Risk and crisis management of disasters
Evidence and science play a key role for risk and crisis management, as highlighted through the work of the OECD High Level Risk Forum and the Science and Technology activities of the United Nations Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The Global Science Forum has also embarked on a project on science advice in crisis. In Europe, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission carries out tremendous work in the field of risk and crisis management of natural disasters. Science and technology produce vital evidence which is necessary to find solutions to improve disaster risk reduction, as well as anticipation and response to disasters.
Panellists
Ian Clark, Head of Unit, Disaster Risk Management, Joint Research Centre, European Commission
Satoru Nishikawa, Executive Director, Japan Center for Area Development Research (JCADR)
Virginia Murray, Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England
This session will be moderated by Jack Radisch and Charles Baubion (OECD).
17.30 – 18:00 Synthesis and discussion of the results
The participants will be invited to discuss the results and key takeaways in each of the relevant topic areas. They will also be invited to discuss the opportunities and realities of promoting an evidence-driven approach across government and beyond.
18:00 Networking cocktail
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Tuesday, 27 June 2017
8:30 Welcome coffee
8:45 – 9:15 Key note address: The realities of providing Science Advice
Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister, President of the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA)
The keynote will address the multiple dimensions of providing science advice at the highest levels of government. It will address the art of confronting the expectations and standards of science driven analysis with the needs of reaching timely decisions in the practical realm of policy making.
9:15– 10:15 Changing minds: assessing the impact of evidence on policy and practice
This session will focus on how evidence can make a real difference in citizens’ lives and for society, and what action can be taken for evidence to positively influence the mind-set. The session will first start by contextualising the discussion, as the evidence driven agenda is also facing the emergence of a post-truth environment that creates a very challenging policy context, particularly coupled with the impact of social media.
The discussions will follow by pinpointing cases where evidence has made a significant impact, to discuss how this can be assessed and what the best approaches are to foster it. Invited experts will present practical examples of where and how evidence fostered real improvement in policy and practice, in turn creating more inclusive and sustainable outcomes for citizens.
Panellists
Matthew d’Ancona, Journalist, Visiting research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, Author: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back
Molly Irwin, Chief Evaluation Officer, U.S. Department of Labor
Clara Richards, Senior Programme Manager, Evidence-Informed Policy Making, INASP
Nick Carroll, Economic Counsellor, Permanent Delegation to the OECD, New Zealand
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10:15 – 11:45 Breakout sessions
Key elements for evidence-informed policy making
This breakout session will address key elements that are needed to make sure that evidence-informed policy making works, and what this means in practical terms for decision makers, knowledge brokers, scientists and analysts. Which skills, tools, networks, methods, and guidelines are needed to make evidence work?
Participants will address different parts of this question in small, moderated group discussions and will identify the necessary elements to support evidence eco-systems.
There will be four different sessions on:
1. Guidelines and standards for evidence
In order to be able to leverage large bodies of research on an international scale, a quality standard is vital to ensure the comparability of evidence. The Campbell Collaboration has experience with producing systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses for evidence-informed policy and practice. By setting high standards for evidence inputs in these reviews, the quality and reliability of the results can be ensured. High standards can also hamper the production of evidence, as it requires more skills, time and resources. Hence, guidelines and standards for evidence need to facilitate the right kind of balance between quality, format and timeliness of research delivery. The International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) has also been working towards developing a universal set of operating principles and guidelines for science advice.
During this breakout session participants will discuss the needs of those making or using evidence and how guidelines and standards can be defined to ensure quality and comparability of evidence, without constricting the evidence base.
Panellists
Stephen Fraser, Director International Partnerships, The Education Endowment Foundation, United Kingdom
Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, Division of History and Politics, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
James Wilsdon, Vice President of INGSA, Professor, University of Sheffield
David Gough, Director, EPPI-Centre, UCL Institute of Education This session will be moderated by Stephane Jacobzone (OECD).
2. Diffusing innovations and experimentation
This breakout session will be organised in collaboration with the Observatory for Public Sector Innovation and the Joint Research Centre, who have been working on ways to scale up innovation in the public sector to find new solutions to complex problems. Fast experimentation can help produce new evidence early on in the process, allowing for adjustments and refinement of policy approaches to diminish uncertainty. Randomized controlled trials, A/B testing, etc. can produce new evidence to find out whether a policy intervention actually had an impact; yet results may take time to emerge. Experimental government approaches and policy labs are areas of increasing interest but one where many challenges still exist. Governments need to strike a balance between rapid experimentation to test innovative solutions when an evidence-base does not exist, and compare evidence generated from experiments
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with proven evidence to support idea diffusion and scaling.
Panellists
Camille Laporte, Project Manager, Secrétariat général pour la modernisation de l'action publique (SGMAP), France
Kaisa Lähteenmäki-Smith, Science Specialist, Policy Analysis Unit, Prime Minister's Office, Finland
Xavier Troussard, Joint Research Council, Policy Lab
This session will be moderated by Piret Tonurist (OECD).
3. Skills for policy makers and scientists
As more knowledge and data become available, the need for effective knowledge management and sense-making becomes more urgent. The research community and public service need the right skillset to produce and make sense of different kinds of information. Still, the evolution towards more evidence-informed policy making cannot be a one-sided process. Any skill that is strengthened on the evidence side has to be accompanied by similar developments on the policy side, adapting to better use of evidence.
Participants will work together to identify such skills during this breakout session, which is in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).
Panellists
Sharon Smit, Director Sustainable Society, Coordinator Horizon 2020 ACCOMPLISSH, University of Groningen, Netherlands
David Mair, Head of Unit, Knowledge Management, DG JRC, European Commission
This session will be moderated by Milena Raykovska (JRC).
4. Using behavioural insights to inform policy and practice
“Behavioural insights” ‒ lessons derived from the behavioural and social sciences, including decision making, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, organisational and group behaviour ‒ are being applied by governments to gain better evidence on how human beings actually behave (vs. how they rare assumed to rationally behave) with the aim of making public policies work better. The use of behavioural insights has moved beyond a trend and is now firmly established in the processes of government. However, they still appear to be used mostly in the late policy design and implementation phases of the policy cycle. More work needs to be done to incorporate these insights in the diagnosis and evaluation stages. Also, there is potential to explore ways to apply behavioural insights to more meso- and macro-level policy issues, including to issues related to global sustainable development as well as influencing the behavioural of organisations.
In this session, participants will hear from leading practitioners in the field of behavioural science that will provide insights on how different institutional models for applying behavioural insights exist, as well as how knowledge can be aggregated and disseminated so that others can learn and apply evidence in to related policy problems, including through the use of international networks.
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Panellists
Nicolò Di Gaetano, Senior Advisor, Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water (AGEESI), Italy
Daniel Shephard, Co-Founder and President, The Implementation Science & Communication Strategies Group and former member of the White House Social and Behavioural Science Team, United States
Mariam Chammat, Chief Behavioural Officer, Secretariat General pour la modernisation de l’action publique (SGMAP), France
Georgios Dimitropoulos, Assistant Professor, HBKU Law School and Member of the Nudge Unit Greece Advisory Board, Greece
James Drummond (OECD) will introduce the session, which will be moderated by Mariam Chammat (SGMAP).
11:45 – 13:00 Identifying actionable next steps
Driven by the mandate to foster a culture of evidence-informed policy making, the OECD is committed to continue its efforts in taking the agenda on evidence-informed policy forward. During this closing session, the Secretariat will present a proposal on areas where the OECD can add value, and how this work can be taken forward. This will include work in the relevant areas addressed through the various breakout sessions, such as early intervention, justice, in addition to more general aspects of supporting evidence-based policy making as well as whole of government evaluation practices. The project will be enriched by the discussion with countries, experts, and partner organisations. Practical next steps and the implications in terms of resources and information sharing will also be discussed in relation to this proposal.
Panellists
Stephane Jacobzone, Deputy Head of Division, Reform of the Public Sector, Directorate for Public Governance, OECD
David Mair, Head of Unit, Knowledge Management, DG JRC, European Commission
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Who’s who
Charlina Vitcheva, Deputy Director General of DG JRC, European Commission
Charlina Vitcheva was appointed Deputy Director General of the JRC in September 2016. She was previously Director of Smart and Sustainable Growth and Southern Europe at DG Regional and Urban Policy, and also held a position in Inclusive Growth, Territorial and Urban Development and Northern Europe. Before joining the Commission, Charlina spent 15 years in the Bulgarian public administration including at the Permanent Representation in Brussels. During this period, she was actively involved in the accession negotiations of Bulgaria and headed, between 2000 and 2004, the negotiations teams in the area of agriculture and rural development, food safety and fisheries.
Rolf Alter, Director for Public Governance, OECD
Rolf Alter is Director for Public Governance with the OECD. He leads a team of 200 staff to support governments in improving their public sector performance for inclusive growth and the competitiveness of their economies. Under his leadership, the Directorate pursues a programme of cooperation with a wide range of non-member countries and is engaged with international institutions to advance the research on empirical evidence and good policy practices of public sector economics and governance. He joined the OECD in 1991.
Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General, Finnish National Agency for Education
Olli-Pekka Heinonen is the Director General at the Finnish National Agency for Education and the former State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance of Finland. He also acted as a State Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, where he was responsible for organising and leading the Prime Minister’s Office. Previous to joining the Prime Minister’s Office in March 2012, Mr Heinonen has been minister in the Finnish government for 8 years and a member of Finnish parliament for 7 years.
Philip Rycroft, Second Permanent Secretary and Head of the UK Governance Group, Cabinet Office
Philip Rycroft was appointed as Second Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union in April 2017. He was appointed Second Permanent Secretary, Head of UK Governance Group in the Cabinet Office in June 2015, with responsibility for constitutional and devolution issues, and retains this role. From 2012 to 2015 he was the Director General in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, supporting the Deputy Prime Minister across the full range of his policy interests.
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Steve Martin, Director, Public Policy Institute for Wales
Steve Martin is Director of the Public Policy Institute for Wales and Professor of Public Policy & Management at Cardiff Business School. He is an expert in local government policy and has served as an adviser to the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments and the European Commission. Steve is the co-editor of Policy and Politics, one the leading international peer reviewed journals in the field of public and social policy.
Kenichi Tsukahara, Professor, Kyushu University
Professor Kenichi Tsukahara is a Professor of Kyushu University in the Faculty of Engineering, Urban System Engineering. He is a specialist in regional science, infrastructure development and international cooperation and conducts research and fieldwork in areas including database development for disaster risk reduction and efficient land use management with sustainable infrastructure provision. He also holds position as the Director of the Natural Disaster Information Center of Western Japan.
Sir John Elvidge, Chair, Carnegie UK Trust
Sir John Elvidge became Chair of the Carnegie UK Trust, in May 2017. He was Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government from 2003 to 2010, and previously worked in the Cabinet Office and the Scottish Office and works in an advisory role with several governments in Europe, China and North America. He is an Adjunct Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and works with the University of Oxford on programmes for leadership and public policy for overseas governments.
Howard White, Chief Executive Officer, Campbell Collaboration
Before coming to the Campbell Collaboration, Howard White was the founding Executive Director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and previously led the impact evaluation programme of the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group. Prior to that he was an academic at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He has advised many government agencies in Europe and across Africa and Asia, and published widely on anti-poverty programmes, aid effectiveness and methods for impact evaluation and evidence synthesis. As an academic he leans towards work with policy relevance, and working in the policy field leans toward academic rigour as a basis for policy and practice.
James Wilsdon, Vice President of INGSA, Professor, University of Sheffield
James Wilsdon is Vice-Chair of the International Network for Government Scientific Advice and Professor of Research Policy in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. He combines this with a role as Director of Impact and Engagement for the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Associate Director in the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. He is also one of the editors of the Guardian's 'Political Science' blog on science and research policy.
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Robyn Mildon, Executive Director, Centre for Evidence and Implementation, Australia
Robyn Mildon has a longstanding career focused on the implementation, mainstreaming, and scaling-up of evidence to achieve social impact for children, families and communities. She has led a number of initiatives aimed at improving the use of evidence to in real-world service and policy settings. Robyn has also built a portfolio of projects collaborating with both government and non-government agencies in countries such as Singapore, Norway, Sweden, the USA and New Zealand.
Tom McBride, Director of Evidence, Early Intervention Foundation, United Kingdom
Before joining the Early Intervention Foundation, Tom McBride was based at the Department for Education, where he led the Strategic Analysis function providing analytical support across all areas of education policy. Much of his work focused on the performance of disadvantaged children, and the role of education in improving social mobility. Prior to that he was at the National Audit Office for eight years where he developed and led the ‘Decision Analysis and Modelling group’ and delivered multi-method evaluations across a range of government activities.
Cris Coxon, Head of Civil and Administrative Justice Research, Ministry of Justice, United Kingdom
Cris Coxon has held positions in several UK Government Departments before joining the Ministry of Justice in 2012. He worked initially on criminal justice and now leads a research team which covers several access to justice policy areas including civil and administrative justice, court fees, and legal services. Cris is member of the Government Social Research profession and the Government Statistical Service, and has a range of research interests including evaluation design, administrative data analysis, and exploratory data science approaches.
Ines Hartwig, DG Justice and Consumer, European Commission
Dr. Ines Hartwig, is an official at the European Commission, DG Justice and Consumers. She holds university degrees in political science from the universities of Frankfurt/M. and Tuebingen (D), and from the College of Europe (B). Before joining the European Commission in 2005 she worked at the European Institute of Public Administration and at the German Parliament (Bundestag). Since more than 3 years she is a member of the DG JUST team in charge of the EU Justice Scoreboard.
Christopher L. Griffin, Research Director, Access to Justice Lab, Harvard Law School
Christopher Griffin earned his B.S. magna cum laude from Georgetown University, an MPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford, and his J.D. from Yale Law School. He previously taught at Duke Law School (2010-2012) and William & Mary Law School (2012-2016). In addition to randomized evaluations of court administration and legal services provision, his research interests include employment discrimination and judicial decision-making.
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Nancy Hey, Director What Works Centre for Wellbeing, United Kingdom
Nancy Hey is the director of the world’s first What Works Centre for Wellbeing, which aims to understand what governments, business, communities and individuals can do to increase wellbeing. She is an experienced policy professional and coach who has worked with the UK’s top Civil Servants to introduce wellbeing into public policy. She has worked in nine government departments including on constitutional reform.
Roger Halliday, Chief Statistician, Scottish Government, United Kingdom
As the Chief Statistician, Roger Halliday has overall responsibility for the implementation and coordination of professional statistical standards across Scotland. He previously worked in the Department of Health in England as a policy analyst managing evidence for decision making across NHS issues. His areas of expertise are around children, learning, skills and the economy, as well as in health.
Michaela Saisana, Senior Scientific Officer Leader of the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards (COIN), DG JRC, European Commission
Michaela Saisana is a senior Scientific Officer and leads the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards (COIN). She conducts and coordinates research (COIN Competence Centre) on multidimensional measures for evidence-based policy making on social, economic, health and environmental issues.
Jennifer Wallace, Head of Policy, Carnegie UK Trust
An experienced researcher and public policy analyst, Jennifer currently leads the policy team at the Carnegie UK Trust. She has over 15 years’ experience of public policy. Previous roles in both the public and voluntary sector included research and advocacy on education, local government and housing. Her work has led directly to positive change in legislation, policy and practice. She is a recognized expert on wellbeing in public policy with a number of non-academic publications. She is an adviser to the Scottish Government on societal wellbeing and sits on the Cabinet Secretary’s Roundtable on Measuring Scotland’s Progress. She was a pivotal figure in the development of the Northern Ireland Performance Framework, through her membership of the Carnegie Roundtable on Measuring Wellbeing in Northern Ireland and co-wrote a number of related publications. Jennifer holds the degrees of MA (Hons) in Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh and MPhil in Social Science Research from the University of Glasgow. She is Convernor of Evaluation Support Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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Ian Clark, Head of Unit, Disaster Risk Management, Joint Research Council, European Commission
Ian Clark has worked for the European Commission since 1984 in different departments and since 2010 on disaster management. Responsibilities on the latter included cooperating with Member States in the promotion of disaster risk assessment and coordinating the Commission's contribution to the UN Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction. Since October 2016 Ian Clark works the Commission's Joint Research Centre to manage the 'Disaster Risk Management' unit that addresses research and knowledge management to support disaster management policies as well as climate adaptation and conflict prevention.
Dr Satoru Nishikawa, Executive Director, Japan Centre for Area Development Research (JCADR)
With an extensive history of service to the Japanese Government and the UN, Dr Satoru Nishikawa has held senior positions in the Cabinet Office and MLIT. At the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, he coordinated the Japanese Government technical assistance to affected countries. He hosted the 2005 UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction where HFA was adopted, and proposed the Japanese BCP guideline in 2005. He is a member of the UN Advisory Group on the post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Virginia Murray, Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England
Virginia Murray qualified in medicine and she has been much involved in health, science and technology for disaster risk reduction and management and has published and taught widely. As a member of the UN Advisory Group on the post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and as vice-chair of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, she attended the many negotiations for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. She holds several Visiting and Honorary Professorships including one at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health.
Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister, President of the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA)
Professor Gluckman’s research focuses on what gives us a healthy start to life: understanding how a baby’s environment between conception and birth determines its childhood development and life-long health - and the impact that this knowledge has for individuals and whole populations. His research has won him numerous awards and international recognition including Fellowship of the Commonwealth’s most prestigious scientific organisation, The Royal Society (London). He is the only New Zealander elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science (USA) and the Academy of Medical Sciences of Great Britain.
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Matthew D'Ancona, Journalist, Visiting research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, Author: The New war on Truth and How to Fight Back
Following a traineeship at The Times, Matthew D'Ancona has written for several British newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator, The Guardian and the London Evening Standard. He has also contributed columns for the New York Times, and articles for the British political magazine Prospect. Mr D'Ancona is chairman of the liberal Conservative think tank, Bright Blue, a trustee of the Science Museum and a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.
Molly Irwin, Chief Evaluation Officer, U.S. Department of Labor
With more than 20 years of experience conducting large-scale research and evaluation projects and working with policy makers and researchers to build and use evidence with the goal of improving public programs, Molly Irwin has led research projects and initiatives in local and state government, the private sector, and academia. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Clara Richards, Senior Programme Manager, Evidence-Informed Policy Making, INASP
Clara Richards is the Director of INASP's VakaYiko programme, and leads
INASP's work on Evidence-Informed Policy Making. Clara has previously
worked as an independent consultant on policy influence and evidence
informed policy in various contexts, including Latin America, Asia and
Africa. She has been working with RAPID (Research and Policy in
Development) in ODI (Overseas Development Institute) coordinating the
Evidence Based in Development Network (EDBPN) since 2011.
Nick Carroll, Economic Counsellor, Permanent Delegation to the OECD, New Zealand
Following roles in the New Zealand government Department of Labour and in the Australian Government Department of Employment, Nick Carroll is currently part of New Zealand's delegation to the OECD, where he supports and leads New Zealand's representation in key economics commitees.
Stephen Fraser, Director International Partnerships, The Education Endowment Foundation, UK
Stephen Fraser leads the development of the EEF’s international partnerships. These partnerships support the adoption and generation of evidence beyond England, and contribute back into the evidence base for English schools. He also contributes to the EEF’s dissemination and impact work, collaborating with educators to understand and translate evidence to support practical implementation in their local context. Stephen is seconded from the Department of Education and Training in Victoria, Australia.
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Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, Division of History and Politics, University of Stirling, UK
A specialist in British politics and public policy, Paul Cairney focuses on the ways in which policy studies can explain the use of evidence in politics and policy, and how policymakers translate broad long term aims into evidence-informed objectives. His research has included the policy capacity of Scottish institutions in the lead-up to the referendum on Scottish independence, and he is currently researching the ways in which governments can use evidence to learn from the success and failure of other government strategies.
David Gough, Director, EPPI-Centre, University College London
David Gough is Professor of Evidence Informed Policy and Practice and Director of the EPPI-Centre, which develops methodology of research synthesis and the study of research use. He is Co-Managing Editor of the journal Evidence and Policy and an author of 'Introduction to Systematic Reviews' (Sage, 2017) and of 'The Science of Science Use' (report for the Wellcome Trust, 2016). His current work includes: a study of the UK What Works Centres for ESRC; toolkits on evidence uptake and use; partner in the NICE National Collaborating Centre for Social Care; and the leadership team of DfID's new evaluation centre, CEDIL.
Kaisa Lahteenmaki – Smith, Science Specialist, Policy Analysis Unit, Prime Minister's Office, Finland
After finishing her PhD in 1999, Kaisa Lahteenmaki-Smith worked at the Ministry of the Interior and then as a researcher and evaluator at Nordregio (Nordic Institute for Spatial Planning, Stockholm) and later as a visiting research fellow at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, before moving to consultancy in 2007. Since November 2013 she has worked as science specialist at the Prime Minister’s Office, setting up practices for science dialogue and policy advice and working in the team of “Experimental Finland”.
Xavier Troussard, Joint Research Council, Policy Lab
Xavier Troussard joined the Joint Research Centre in 2014 to lead the development of the EU Policy Lab. He previously worked at the DG for Information, Communication, Culture and Audiovisual before representing the European Commission and leading the EU coordination in the negotiation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. As Head of the Culture policy, diversity and Intercultural dialogue unit in the Directorate General for Education and Culture, he developed the European Agenda for culture and an EU strategy for cultural and creative industries.
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Camille Laporte, Project Manager, Secrétariat général pour la modernisation de l'action publique (SGMAP), France
Since September 2015, Camille Laporte has been working as Evaluation Head of Project at the SGMAP, Prime Minister Office. Previously, she was an expert in development project evaluation at the Frend Development Agency. She has a PhD in International Relations from Sciences po Paris and teach at the university Paris 11.
Sharon Smit, Director Sustainable Society, Coordinator Horizon 2020 ACCOMPLISSH, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Sharon Smit is Director of Sustainable Society, one of the three societal topics of the University of Groningen. She has been working on the development of the PERSON platform since 2014. Sharon supports Linda Steg in the work for the PERSON platform.
David Mair, Head of Unit, Knowledge Management, DG JRC, European Commission
David has worked for the European Commission since 1995 and in the Joint Research Centre (the Commission's science and knowledge service) since 2011 as Head of Unit responsible for Science advice to policy and the JRC Work Programme. Since July 2016 he is Head of the Unit "Knowledge Management: Geographic". From 2011-2013 he was also responsible for foresight in the JRC. From April 2015 to December 2015 he was Acting Director for Policy Support Coordination.
From 1998 to 2011 he worked in DG Health and Consumers, involved in policy strategy, enforcement issues and consumer research, data and statistics. From 2007 to 2011 he was Head of Unit for consumer market monitoring and analysis, responsible for the Consumer Markets Scoreboard and work on consumer behaviour. Before the Commission he worked for the UK Treasury in Brussels and London and has also worked in the City of London as a corporate financier and in the British Army. He studied History at Cambridge University.
Nicolo Di Gaetano, Senior Advisor, Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water (AGEESI), Italy
Nicolò Di Gaetano has a Ph.D in Electric Power Systems Engineering from the University of Pisa (Italy). In 1994 he joined ENEL spa in the R&D Division, and later as Business Development Manager. From 2000 to 2009 he moved to Consip spa, the national agency for public procurement, as Director of Energy Markets. From 2009 to 2013 he was Public Affair and Market Analysis Director at Acquirente Unico s.p.a. Presently, he is Senior Board Advisor at the Italian Energy and Water Regulator (AEEGSI).
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Daniel Shephard, Co-Founder and President, The Implementation Science and Communication Strategies Group and former member of the White House Social and Behavioural Science Team
With more than eight years of experience in education and evaluation, Daniel Shephard was an Associate Fellow at the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, Senior Manager for Research and Education at Aflatoun International, a consultant for the International Labour Organization, and a teacher. He has worked on revising curriculum content globally and contributed to or led more than a dozen randomised controlled trials of innovative programs and over thirty monitoring and evaluation efforts.
Mariam Chammat, Chief Behavioural Officer, Secretariat General pour la modernisation de l'action publique (SGMAP), France
Since June 2016, Mariam Chammat has been Chief Behavioural Officer of the Secretariat General pour la modernisation de l’action publique (SGMAP). Her work consists in translating findings and methods from cognitive and behavioral sciences into improvements in public policies and programs. She is also highly involved in debiasing programs which she has developed in order to translate findings on cognitive biases into tools that help improve critical thinking and mental flexibility. Ms Chammat holds a PhD in affective and cognitive neuroscience and previously completed postdoctoral research at ICM Brain and Spine Institute on cognitive dissonance.
Georgios Dimitropoulos, Associate Professor, HBKU School and member of Nudge Unit Greece Advisory Board
Before joining HBKU Law School Georgios Dimitropoulos was a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg and a Hauser Research Scholar at New York University (NYU) School of Law. Mr Dimitriopoulos completed an internship at the European Commission’s Directorate General Enterprise and Industry, and during his PhD studies he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for German and European Administrative Law of the University of Heidelberg.
Stephane Jacobzone, Counsellor, Reform of the Public Sector, Public Governance, OECD
Stephane Jacobzone takes a leading role in coordinating public governance activities at the OECD, including through the High Level Risk Forum (HLRF) which led the development of ground-breaking OECD Principles on the Governance of Critical Risks. Mr. Jacobzone also co-ordinates the OECD Public Governance Committee, including thematic work on strategic agility and trust in government, and country reviews. He previously worked on regulatory issues and the institutional design for economic regulators, and conducted multidisciplinary country reviews of regulatory reform in a dozen of countries. He started his career at the French Treasury.
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