The conference will explore how bridges can be built between researchers, policy makers and educational practitioners by using evidence based research to improve policy making. A key focus of this exploration will be on the role of brokerage agencies (i.e., institutions, programmes, or other mechanisms) designed to improve linkages between research and policy concerns and act as bridges in a national or international context (for example, the EPPI-Centre in the UK).
The goals of this conference are to: 1) build on the results and discussions of the previous seminars; 2) focus on different models and roles of brokerage agencies and examine strengths and weaknesses of these different models; and 3) bring together the different themes from across all three workshops to begin to draw conclusions from the project as a whole.
The conference format will have an innovative design and aims to foster discussion among (senior) policy makers and the wider education community concerned with (evidence based) research issues, i.e., educational researchers, practitioners/teachers/school leaders and intermediary organisations.