How we got here
A working group – operating as part of the broader ESIC planning process from January through June 2025 – articulated many of our collective aspirations for the sharing and reusing of evidence-synthesis data. Their work can be found in:
- the group’s two-page summary report prepared as an input to the ESIC roadmap
- the group’s final reports and feedback summaries from steps 1-4 that were prepared as inputs to ESIC roadmap
- the data sharing and reusing ‘relevant’ parts of the:
- ESIC roadmap – infographic, 11-page version, and full (56-page) version – from which the year-1 foundational investments were drawn and to which we will return when considering investments in future years
- Cape Town Consensus Charter such as the principles of collective impact and equity
- theory of change, including both a one-page diagram and an accompanying 17-page document.
The Funder executive announced on 21 September 2025 that an open data system would be one of the five year-1 foundational investments. More details about this event can be found on the History webpage, and relevant documents can be found on the Documents webpage.
The Funder executive shared on 11 October 2025 a memo outlining our proposed approach to technology-company engagement. The approach applies primarily to our foundational investment in an open data system, as well as our investment in the living inventory of AI-enabled digital evidence-synthesis tools.
ESIC then convened a series of three touchpoints about the proposed open data system in October and November 2025. The key documents emerging from these touchpoints include:
- notes from the three touchpoints
- memo from the Funders executive that describes the next steps
- sample use cases
- slides about where we are with existing investments in an open-source solution (including, in the final slide, links to relevant documentation)
- existing and proposed capabilities (in non-technology language)
- topics that the planning group is working through from mid-January to mid-March.