Overview
By the end of 2026 we will have 11 sectoral hubs providing access to ‘best evidence’ – including trustworthy, actionable insights – on the big questions (or problems) of our time, as well as the ability to commission or fund radically more timely, relevant and affordable evidence syntheses. The 11 sectors include:
- climate solutions
- crime and justice
- economic growth*
- education
- environmental management
- food systems*
- health (with ‘spokes’ for health emergencies, mental health, and preventive services in a hub-and-spoke model)
- humanitarian assistance*
- peace and effective institutions*
- social protection*
- sustainable-development ‘accelerators.’
The emerging hubs include a mix of a longer-standing one (climate solutions, or hub 1), four being planned as part of METIUS (hubs 2, 4, 5 and 11), and one using a hub-and-spoke model where existing efforts are being aligned (hub 7). Those marked with an asterisk (*) are the focus of a call for new hubs, and will have a health determinants and outcomes lens complementing their respective sectoral focus.
We provisionally plan to move to coverage of all sectors in 2027, which will include two sectors we are currently missing according to the ‘classification of functions of government’ – 1) housing, transportation and community amenities; and 2) recreation and culture – and other spokes in the health hub (e.g., sectors like primary care, conditions like non-communicable diseases, treatments like prescription drugs, and populations like pregnant women, newborns and children). These will be considered as part of possible new foundational investments.
Why this matters
The sectoral hubs will be a game changer for decision-makers – government policymakers, organization leaders, professionals and citizens, as well as UN agency staff – by providing access to trustworthy, actionable insights on all of the big questions (or problems) of our time – from policy-scale, AI-enabled, living evidence syntheses – including how the insights vary by groups and contexts. Imagine every study (or evaluation) – from anywhere in the world – addressing the same question… all in one place, each with key data (e.g., about effect sizes) extracted and quality assessed, and with an overall synthesis about what was learned and with what equity considerations and confidence or caveats.
The sectoral hubs will also be a game changer for evidence intermediaries, synthesis teams and technology companies by providing access to the synthesis- and AI-ready data underpinning these insights and feedback in case an individual or group wants to contextualize the insights for a different group or context, or they want to adjust how studies were identified and selected or how evidence was extracted, appraised and synthesized. We are moving to a world where we extract data once and conduct quality (e.g., risk-of-bias) assessments once, and use the data many times – and thereby avoid the extraordinary duplication happening in evidence synthesis every day.
Lastly, the sectoral hubs will be a game changer for four types of funders: international assistance, national (or domestic) funders, philanthropic, and research. For example, international assistance funders may use our synthesis data in the form of ‘best buys’ lists. National funders may use the actionable insights to improve accountability and support learning and improvement. Research funders may draw on our feedback loops to improve the relevance and rigour of primary research or to write calls and require proposals that leverage and contribute to the infrastructure and help move us to full coverage with evidence syntheses.