The term evidence-based policymaking has many different facets. The recent bipartisan Commission on Evidence-based Policymaking defined it as the application of evidence to inform decisions in government. This simple definition, however, raises difficult questions: what types of activities are included in the application of evidence, what counts as evidence, how rigorous should evidence be, who is included in the decision-making process, and what the best methods to inform decision-making are.

The Forum seeks to inform policymakers of potential answers to these questions. Through our work organizing the Cross-Agency Learning Community on Federal Investments in Research and Evaluation as well as our more recent work writing the report “Managing for Success: Strengthening the Federal Infrastructure for Evidence-Based Policymaking”, the Forum is ideally placed to support policymakers in their efforts to build and ultimately use evidence in the policymaking process.