By Kat Smith and Paul Cairney
2. Paul Cairney (biography)
How can we improve the way we think about the relationship between evidence and policy? What are the key insights that existing research provides?
1. Evidence does not tell us what to do
It helps reduce uncertainty, but does not tell us how we should interpret problems or what to do about them.
2. There is no such thing as ‘the evidence’
Instead, there is a large number of researchers with different backgrounds, making different assumptions, asking different questions, using different methods, and addressing different problems.