White House declares Year of Evidence for agencies

The White House wants agencies to spend the next year sharing how they’re using research to promote social equity, developing new methods for evidence-based decision making, and increasing cross-sector collaboration between researchers and policymakers.

As part of the Year of Evidence for Action announced Thursday, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Management and Budget will cohost a series of events with nonprofits and academic institutions to create strategies for using research-based evidence to address national challenges.

President Biden issued a memo on evidence-based policymaking one week after taking office to increase governmentwide use of evidence to make policy and program decisions and restore trust in government. The Year of Evidence builds on that work with progress being tracked on Evaluation.gov.

“In 2022, we look forward to advancing the theory and practice for the current generation of evidence and the next generation by bringing together diverse communities to better understand and apply emerging models for using information in complex, dynamic, real-time decision-making environments,” said Nick Hart, president of the Data Foundation, in a statement. “Using the best data and applying evidence in practice doesn’t happen in a laboratory, which means we need better approaches that help users understand how to use evidence to inform decisions in real life, in real-time and in real settings.”

The Data Foundation is one of the organizations partnering with the White House for the Year of Evidence and plans to host an event, NextGen Evidence: Exploring Approaches for Applying Evidence in Active, Real-Time Decision-Making Environments.

Other organizations involved include: the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative at Pennsylvania State University, the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Policy Lab at Brown University, Results for America, and the Urban Institute.

The White House wants the public to participate in the Year of Evidence by conducting policy relevant research tied to federal priorities and applying for contracts and grants, like the Analytics for Equity Initiative, focused on government evidence building. The government is also hiring for program evaluators, data scientists, and science and technology policy analysts.

Intergovernmental Personnel Act fellowships allow people to participate in short-term public service assignments with OMB’s Evidence Team or policy offices in the Executive Office of the President.

The White House also wants ideas, resources and guides on evidence creation and use sent to evidence@omb.eop.gov.