The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information Centre is based at the Social Science Research Unit within the UCL Social Research Institute, a department of IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society.
The EPPI Centre’s mission is to promote and support collaborative, rigorous evidence for a fairer world. To support this mission we focus on:-
- Evidence synthesis methods: Developing state-of-the-art reliable evidence synthesis methods and tools fusing optimised inputs from people, processes and enabling technologies.
- Participation: Employing meaningful and ethical approaches for people from diverse backgrounds to take part in generating and using evidence for the public good.
- Research impact: Supporting mobilisation of research knowledge so that it can be used to make a positive, meaningful and equitable difference to people’s lives.
- Capacity building: Developing skills, processes, structures and cultures conducive to research-informed policy and policy-relevant research.
The centre was established in 1995 by Professor Ann Oakley. Oakley’s multi-disciplinary approach to research engendered the EPPI Centre’s problem focused approach to evidence synthesis:
“What matters is the question, and then the answer. The bit in-between the question and the answer is a long and careful process requiring much thought and judgement as well as dedicated tools and approaches.”
(Oakley, A. Foreword. In: Gough D, Oliver S, Thomas J Eds. An Introduction to Systematic Reviews. 2nd ed. Sage; 2017).