Throughout 2024 and early 2025, the IES engaged in a thematic project exploring the role of knowledge in supporting evidence-informed policy.

The project resulted in several outcomes, including the publication of two reports and a collection of case studies, several discussion events, and extensive analysis on the role of knowledge in environmental policy.

This report brings together the insights from each of those outcomes through a series of reflections on how they contribute to the overall goal of supporting evidence-informed policy. Ultimately, six components of how knowledge can inform evidence-informed policy:

1. Through worldviews and different forms of knowledge
2. Through evidence that helps us to understand the world and what we know about it
3. Through processes and what we know about how policy making works in practice
4. Through technology and the tools we can use to enhance our knowledge
5. Through understanding the barriers to evidence-informed policy and the roles knowledge can play
6. Through communication and the transfer of knowledge from one person or group to another

When combined, these six components support a concept of transformative evidence-informed action: the means through which knowledge can leverage multiple aspects of the systems underpinning policy and societal change.

To support those seeking to adopt this approach, the report concludes with six ‘frames’ which can be used to access a more transformative approach to knowledge, each arising from a combination of two of the above components.

Knowledge is an essential element of transformative change. Facing linked and complex environmental crises, we must make full use of it to bring society forwards into a future with thriving people, a healthy economy, and a flourishing environment.