Status of hubs
The first two regional hubs will likely be supported in Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean, where there are well established networks of evidence intermediaries that can be built upon, namely the Africa Evidence Network and the Hub de Evidencias de Latinoamérica y del Caribe (or the Latin America and Caribbean Evidence Hub). A concept note from these two regional hubs is currently being peer reviewed by the Wellcome Trust.
A sub-regional hub is currently being explored for the UK and Europe. An application to lead this sub-regional hub is currently being peer reviewed by UK Research and Innovation.
We will continue provide updates on the status of these hubs as funding decisions are reached.
We provisionally plan to move to coverage of all regions in 2027 (or 2028), with the next most likely priorities being Asia Pacific and the Middle East (sometimes called Arab States in the UN system). We hope that we can also expand the focus of the sub-regional hub to cover all of Europe and Central Asia. This expansion in coverage will be considered as part of possible new foundational investments.
As we noted in discussing work on a minimum-viable product of the open data system for the education sector, the Jacobs Foundation – acting on behalf of a broad array of education-sector funders and partners – has issued a call for evidence intermediaries, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The evidence intermediaries will have the opportunity to test and shape the open data system while producing high-impact, policy- or practice-relevant synthesis and translation to support education decision-making. The call was launched 17 December 2025. Expressions of interest were due 29 January 2026, and final proposals are due 3 March 2026.