Open evidence-synthesis data system

A seven-member planning group is working together from mid-January to mid-March 2026 to draft a proposal for how the open data system will work. They are seeking to inform a transition from research projects led by a few to a co-owned, distributed open data system that people trust or, said another way, that people feel invested in, contribute insights to and engage in testing of, and add data to and draw data from.

The planning group is comprised of seven individuals representing the diverse types of interest holders in the open data system:

• sectoral hubs – Sarah Miller from METIUS
• regional hubs, or regional networks of evidence intermediaries – Laura Boeira from Hub de Evidencias de Latinoamérica y del Caribe (or the Latin America and Caribbean Evidence Hub)
• open data system and related tech solution developers – James Thomas from DESTINY and related systems, and Laurenz Mahlanza-Langer the Pan African Collective for Evidence
• legacy data owners – Karla Soares-Weiser from Cochrane and Shiv Bakrania from UNDP and the UN Evaluation Group
• sector that has brought together many of the above types of interest holders: Andrew Bollington from the Jacobs Foundation acting on behalf of a broad array of education-sector funders and partners.

The planning group will be working through nine topics and is being supported in its work by Paul Castle and Billy West from the Wellcome Trust, as well as through additional legal, open data and other input from their colleagues. The planning group is co-facilitated by John Lavis and Isabel Fletcher.

The group plans to share the draft proposal with our ‘community of communities’ in mid-to-late March. Please register now for a community webinar where you’ll have a chance to ask questions about and provide feedback on the draft proposal. The webinar will take place on Monday 30 March from 8-9 am Eastern. You can access the registration link from our events webpage.

Representatives of the group or Wellcome Trust support team will then be available for bilateral and small-group discussions throughout April (and perhaps May) to answer additional questions, respond to additional feedback, or talk though potential implications for particular groups.

In parallel to this cross-sectoral planning on an open data system, the Jacobs Foundation – acting on behalf of a broad array of education-sector funders and partners – is supporting work on a minimum-viable product of the open data system for the education sector. Key activities here include:

• a collective statement of intent (from 22 September 2025)
• a collaboration to develop a minimum-viable product of an evidence repository that we hope will eventually become aligned to our multisectoral open data system
• a call for evidence intermediaries – especially in low- and middle-income countries – to test and shape the evidence repository while producing high-impact, policy- or practice-relevant synthesis and translation to support education decision-making

More details about the call can be found in the expressions-of-interest document.