Rapid Evidence Assessments: A Guide for Commissioners, Funders, and Policymakers
Jonathan Breckon, Sandy Oliver, Cecilia Vindrola, Thomas Moniz
Rapid Evidence Assessments (REA) provide high-quality evidence in a timely and cost-effective manner.
They are pragmatic and aim to be a tool for getting on top of the available research evidence on a policy issue, as comprehensively as possible, within the constraints of a given timetable.
They have grown in popularity in the last decade and increased in number across continents including in response to emergencies such as the Fukushima disaster or the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, as well as the Covid pandemic.
This guide is based on the findings from a pilot project, where five REAs were conducted for select committees in the UK Parliament, as part of a partnership between Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST, UK Parliament), International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO), and Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE).
It’s intended to give you a feel for the entire review process, to inform your tender document, and help you ask searching questions of the review teams, to create a final review that balance between rapidity and rigour.
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