A collective initiative to support evidence synthesis and use in education
A collective initiative to support evidence synthesis and use in education
3ie has joined a global collective of partners committed to strengthening the way evidence is synthesized and used in education. Together, we are working to design and test a synthesis-ready evidence repository—a shared resource that will make high-quality, contextually relevant evidence more accessible, efficient, and actionable. This initiative marks an important step toward ensuring that education investments deliver the greatest possible impact for children, especially in resource-constrained settings.
Statement of intent
Much of the USD 5.8 trillion spent on education every year is not guided by evidence on what we know about children and learning. While the education evidence base is growing fast, challenges persist around evidence synthesis, translation, and use. For example, synthesizing evidence into clear, trustworthy policy- and practitioner-friendly guidelines is unnecessarily expensive and time-consuming.
In response, we are delighted to announce this collective initiative to build and test a synthesis-ready evidence repository for the education sector. Together, we will:
- Pool existing evidence data with a co-created sector taxonomy into a shared repository.
- Conduct a global and open RFP for evidence intermediaries and EdLabs (particularly in the Global South) to test a “minimum viable product” of the repository during 2026, by producing syntheses in response to country-based policy and practice needs.
The repository will be a ‘back-end tool’ designed to make the work of evidence intermediaries much more efficient. It will build upon and support a broader evidence synthesis infrastructure coalescing around the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC). It is an important step in making user-centred and contextually relevant synthesis the norm, especially in resource-constrained environments.
Depending on what we learn during 2026, we aim to scale the initiative much further in 2027. We intend that this relatively small investment in evidence infrastructure will have an exponential impact on children’s learning.
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The full ‘Statement of Intent’ above is co-signed by: Campbell Collaboration, Durham University, Education Endowment Foundation, Effective Basic Services (eBASE) Africa, EPPI Center, ESRC, Future Evidence Foundation, Innovations for Poverty Action, Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Jacobs Center, Jacobs Foundation, The LEGO Foundation, Porticus, viaEd, Wellcome Trust, and the What Works Hub for Global Education.