The Evidence Informed Policy in Education in Europe (EIPEE) database

The EIPEE database is unique in its focused coverage of activities that have been used to link research evidence with policy-making in education in Europe. It currently contains information on 269 activities.

Activities were identified through: (i) EIPEE project partners; (ii) a questionnaire sent to all European ministries/departments of education and other relevant organisations and individuals; and (iii) a systematic search of the worldwide web, electronic bibliographic databases, specialist journals, key publications and websites. The identification and description of the activities was completed between June 2010 and February 2011.

What information on the activities was collected?

The activities have been systematically categorised with the following keywords:

• type of activity
• location of the activity in a simple evidence-to-use model
• type of organisation managing the activity on a day-to-day basis
• type of organisation having control over continuance of the activity
• country

Detailed information about further characteristics of the activities was also collected

Using the EIPEE database

Searches can be carried out using keyword terms.
Reports enable visual mapping and analysis of the search results.
Detailed Help pages provide advice on using this database.

To record results of your searches, you can print out your searches or reports, or cut and paste the table into word processing software. Landscape format provides the best results.

Health warning about the reliability of the data

The information contained within the database needs to be treated with care. First, the data collected might not fully capture the nature of a particular activity. Second, the information in the database may be open to re-interpretation and correction. Third, the frequencies of different types of activities are only indicative and should not be used as an exact measure of the extent of such activity for individual countries.