CA20112 - PlatfoRm OF policy Evaluation community for improvED EU policies and Better ACKnowledgement (PROFEEDBACK)

The Action PROFEEDBACK aims to foster the networking of the policy evaluation community at EU-level, raise awareness on the importance of evaluation policy research and improve its impact on policy-making. The Platform, following a bottom-up and open approach, will gather researchers and professionals from various scientific fields and sectors to present and evaluate theories, topics, tools and methods of policy evaluation. Results of the Europe-wide assessment of good practices will provide direct and high-quality inputs for national and EU bodies responsible for policy evaluation.

Policy evaluation is a key tool in understanding, developing and modernising EU policies, thus there is a growing demand for EU-wide and high quality evaluation services. The main challenge is that currently there is no bottom-up platform for European researchers and professionals working in policy evaluation. They have limited possibilities to discuss common problems, assess country specific practices and share their knowledge in a mutually beneficial and effective way.

PROFEEDBACK aims to tackle this challenge with an innovative, complex, cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach by:

• analysing the theoretical and methodological questions of evaluation policy research putting special focus on Cohesion Policy,
• enriching scientific research of policy evaluation and addressing new challenges,
• harmonizing fragmented approaches to set the research agenda and to get a common understanding,
• contributing to the capacity building of the policy evaluation community,
• involving national and EU policy-makers and the civil society to contribute to evidence-based policy-making,
• framing a Code of Conduct for the policy evaluation community.