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Evaluation Accelerator Fund (Phase 5): Project summaries

This page details the projects that were awarded funding as part of Phase 5 of the Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF).

From:: Evaluation Task Force and Cabinet Office
Published:: 21 September 2026

Background

In May 2026, the Evaluation Task Force (ETF) announced Phase 5 of its Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF). The EAF is a competitive grant fund and supports research and evaluation projects that:

create actionable evidence in government priority areas that informs public spending or policy decisions;
tackle evidence gaps in government priority areas; or
provide robust evidence of financial or efficiency savings from new policies, interventions, or innovative approaches to service delivery

Phase 5 of EAF had an overall value of £6.5 million for 2026/27 financial year. Its areas of priority focus were:

Projects designed to improve the evidence base around Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).
Projects related to artificial intelligence, local government and other government priorities.

In total, £4.7 million were awarded to 40 projects via a competition, this total includes a contribution of £1.1 million from UKRI to support projects related to VAWG and £590,000 from DWP for projects related to employment. £1.4 million were awarded directly to What Works Centres and a further £376,000 were awarded to Mayoral Strategic Authorities.

Funded projects through open competition

Reducing barriers to opportunity and NEETness: Offering GCSE examinations to enhance post-16 transitions in the Exeter Exam Centre Project – a blueprint for national good practice?

Organisation: Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO)
Funding awarded: £114,330
Fund priority area: General

This project evaluates the impact of an exam centre run by the University of Exeter (UoE), Devon County Council, Cornwall Council and Exeter College for Year-11-equivalent young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), offering mock and real GCSE examinations in Maths and English. The independent evaluation assesses the feasibility and scalability of the centre for reducing NEET numbers and provides a replicable blueprint for university-college-council collaborations to improve access to GCSEs and reducing post-16 NEETness.

Baseline and drivers of local planning for energy infrastructure

Organisation: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Funding awarded: £90,348
Fund priority area: General

This project establishes a robust baseline of administrative burden and system performance for local energy infrastructure planning, addressing critical evidence gaps on consenting times, delays and decision‑making. This is critical to enable robust evaluation of recent and planned planning reforms and to support VfM assessment. Using a mixed‑methods approach (survey, interviews and case studies), it generates evidence on how the system operates in practice. In addition, a feasibility study using AI‑enabled methods assesses the potential to extract data from planning documents.

Measuring What Matters: Building the Evidence Base to Evaluate the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee

Organisation: London School of Economics
Funding awarded: £83,152
Fund priority area: General

Public confidence, trust and legitimacy are headline outcomes of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG), yet we lack a tool to track them as the Guarantee rolls out. This project funds Wave 1 of a three-wave panel: a 40-item survey of 1.7 million users of VISAV’s Neighbourhood Alert platform. Wave 1 tests whether confidence, trust and legitimacy can be measured reliably, sets force-level baselines and estimates how far perceptions of neighbourhood policing predict the outcomes. Two partner-supported waves then re-invite Wave 1 respondents and compare matched early- and late-adopter areas, estimating whether the NPG is associated with improved outcomes.

Evaluating the wider economic impacts of Income Tax changes

Organisation: London School of Economics
Funding awarded: £124,481
Fund priority area: General

This project evaluates the wider economic impacts of Income Tax changes, using quasi-experimental methods and the development of new data linking infrastructure. Using difference-in-difference designs, the project leverages two past changes in Income Tax rates (in 2010 and 2016) to study the causal effect of these reforms on a wide range of linked firm-level outcomes, including financial and taxable profits, capital investment, employment, and indicators of innovation. The findings provide new estimates of the direct fiscal effects of changes in Income Tax rates, as well as (for the first time) estimates of their wider economic impacts via spillovers at firm-level.

RADAR: Real-time Aggregation of Domestic Abuse Research and evidence

Organisation: University of Sussex
Funding awarded: £218,909
Fund priority area: General / VAWG

Commissioners, services and researchers lack a reliable, current picture of domestic abuse service delivery and the practice-based evidence behind it. This project seeks to improve access to evidence, by testing the feasibility of an AI-enabled tool, RADAR (Real-time Aggregation of Domestic Abuse Research and evidence), that scrapes, appraises and synthesises publicly available sources to close this gap. Working with Foundations and Brighton & Hove’s VAWG commissioning team along with three frontline services, the project refines the tool’s dataset and quality-appraisal functions, builds understanding of user evidence needs to inform its synthesis design, and tests whether capturing practitioner insight is feasible.

Out-of-hours working, pay and career choices: Evidence from NHS doctors in training

Organisation: The Institute for Fiscal Studies
Funding awarded: £76,130
Fund priority area: General

Many essential public services require work at night and on weekends, but how do pay supplements for these working patterns affect the labour market choices of public sector workers? This project uses linked data on all doctors in training in the English NHS to evaluate the effect of the 2016 contract, which reduced pay uplifts for night and weekend working and introduced recruitment premiums for shortage specialties. The project quantifies how doctors’ specialty choices respond to changes in pay structure and how these responses differ by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background.

Increasing evaluation capacity of evidence use in Local Authority Decision Making

Organisation: Southampton City Council
Funding awarded: £48,891
Fund priority area: General

This project evaluates how different types of evidence are represented in local authority decision-making papers, using the Evidence Pie as a guiding framework. It explores whether a commonly adopted corporate AI product can support this evaluation and generate actionable insights on where efforts to improve evidence use should be targeted. The project assesses the accuracy and acceptability of developing an AI-assisted approach and, ultimately, contributes to a self-assessment tool that could be applied across local government to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making.

Evaluating the outcomes and economic benefits of talking therapies for children and young people with neurodevelopmental conditions

Organisation: London Borough of Havering
Funding awarded: £49,857
Fund priority area: General

A partnership between Havering Council and PenTAG Consulting at University of Exeter evaluates Havering’s school-based counselling programme for autistic and ADHD young people, introduced to address long waits for NHS mental health support. Using mixed-methods, the study analyses linked education, social care and health data to assess short- and mid-term outcomes, comparing participants with similar non-participants. An economic evaluation estimates the programme’s costs, benefits and long-term value. The project aims to inform local decisions on sustaining or scaling the service and provide evidence for other authorities.

Building Evaluation Capability Across the West Midlands Combined Authority: A Partnership Approach to Strengthening Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

Organisation: University of Birmingham
Funding awarded: £179,802
Fund priority area: General

This partnership between City-REDI (University of Birmingham), the West Midlands Combined Authority, and the Walsall Economic Intelligence Unit aims to build sustainable evaluation capability across WMCA. Through embedded academic secondments, bespoke evaluation design support, and skills development, the project works alongside WMCA’s evaluation and appraisal teams to strengthen their capacity to design, commission, deliver and report on robust evaluations. The partnership applies and develops skills across a defined package of WMCA programmes spanning transport, digital, economic development, public service innovation and net zero, producing shareable evaluation outputs, transferable frameworks, and a lasting uplift in regional evaluation infrastructure.

Evaluation of the impacts of the UK’s Impact-Based Heat-Health Alerts: A natural experiment

Organisation: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Funding awarded: £124,407
Fund priority area: General

Heat-health alerts are a key component of the UK’s response to the growing health risks posed by extreme heat and climate change. Developed in collaboration with UKHSA and the Met Office, this project evaluates the effects of heat-health alerts in England using a retrospective natural experiment based on linked administrative and routinely collected data for weather forecasts, alert issuance, and population health outcomes. An implementation and process evaluation also examines how alerts are delivered and acted upon across national and local systems. The project aims to generate evidence on whether heat-health alerts reduce adverse health outcomes and pressures on health services, while identifying opportunities to improve the design, targeting and implementation of the current heat-health alert system. In doing so, it aims to strengthen preventative public health action against the impacts of extreme heat, while supporting the development of an NHS and care system that is resilient, sustainable, and built for the future.

Using predictive AI to reduce school absence – An RCT evaluation in Newcastle

Organisation: Newcastle City Council
Funding awarded: £60,496
Fund priority area: General

This project evaluates an AI-based tool developed by Newcastle City Council to identify Year 5 pupils at risk of high absence by Year 8. Schools and local authority services will use these predictions to trigger earlier, targeted support. The evaluation uses a school-level randomised controlled trial (RCT), with schools allocated to early or delayed implementation, to assess whether the intervention reduces pupil absence rates compared to business-as-usual. This is combined with a process evaluation to understand how the tool is used in practice. Findings will provide robust evidence on impact and equity, alongside practical resources to support other local authorities to implement and evaluate similar AI-based approaches.

Impact of using AI tools in employment support

Organisation: Institute for Employment Studies
Funding awarded: £235,060
Fund priority area: General

This project evaluates the impact of AI tools in the Restart programme, generating robust evidence on whether AI-enabled employment support improves participant engagement, job entry and sustainment, meeting a DWP area of research interest. The evaluation uses a quasi-experimental design comparing participants receiving AI-supported services with similar participants receiving standard Restart support, supported by process evaluation and value-for-money analysis. It draws on provider management information, cost data, qualitative interviews and observations. Deliverables by March 2027 include a draft evaluation report, policy and commissioning briefing, and provider implementation guide, followed by publication-ready outputs after review and quality assurance.

Building an Evaluation Framework for the Abolition of the Two-Child Limit: Feasibility Testing and Proof-of-Concept Using Administrative Data

Organisation: Manchester Metropolitan University
Funding awarded: £17,497
Fund priority area: General

This project develops the feasibility, methodology, and analytical infrastructure required to evaluate the impact of abolishing the two-child limit (2CL) on children’s educational outcomes. Using the National Pupil Database, it identifies affected families, defines credible comparison groups, and tests key quasi-experimental assumptions. The project delivers a documented evaluation framework, reusable analytical code, and implementation guidance. Early proof-of-concept estimates using school absence and early-stage KS2 attainment data will demonstrate how the evaluation can be operationalised as data matures. The project provides a low-cost, low-risk investment that lowers the marginal cost of future policy evaluation across government.

Evidence Generation and Mobilisation for Parenting and Home Learning Environment Programmes Delivered in Best Start Family Hubs in England

Organisation: NESTA
Funding awarded: £261,225
Fund priority area: General

This project enables the scoping of a new initiative to support the evaluation and implementation of parenting and home learning environment (P&HLE) programmes in England, supporting the ambition of the Government’s Best Start in Life strategy. Strand 1 will conduct feasibility studies for seven programmes, to assess readiness for a new impact evaluation and develop evaluation plans. Strand 2 will investigate the factors shaping how Local Authority commissioners and practitioners engage with and act on evidence, and co-design a prototype implementation support offer. Together, the strands ensure that future work on the evidence and implementation of P&HLE programmes will be supported by a pipeline of new evaluations and the infrastructure to translate findings into practice.

Northumbria Teenage Relationship Harm Evaluation of Referral Pathway

Organisation: Northumbria University
Funding awarded: £52,256
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project evaluates Northumberland County Council’s innovative Teenage Relationship Harm (TRH) Early Help referral pathway – the first scheme of its kind in England to systematically capture and intervene in relationship harm between under-16s outside the domestic abuse statutory framework. Through structured case file analysis of up to 60 referrals, a practitioner findings workshop, and practitioner interviews, the project generates actionable evidence about what works in early intervention for this largely invisible cohort, directly informing the UK VAWG Strategy’s prevention and early intervention priorities for young people.

A retrospective QED evaluation of Operation Vigilant

Organisation: Nottingham Trent University
Funding awarded: £69,293
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project employs a retrospective quasi-experimental evaluation of Operation Vigilant, a proactive policing intervention designed to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) by identifying and disrupting predatory behaviour in public spaces and night-time economy settings. Using police administrative data and deployment records from Essex Police, the study assesses the effectiveness of Operation Vigilant in reducing public-space VAWG and whether the outcomes achieved justify the resources required for delivery. The evaluation combines event-study, matched Difference-in-Differences and economic analyses to generate robust evidence on effectiveness, operational mechanisms and value for money.

Preventing VAWG Harm: Arrest Effects over 2 Years Among Highest-Harmed Victims in 4 Police Forces

Organisation: University of Cambridge
Funding awarded: £165,000
Fund priority area: VAWG

This quasi-experimental impact evaluation examines VAWG prevention effects of arresting suspects for harming the 100 highest-harmed VAWG victims (VV-100) in London, Cambridgeshire, Devon & Cornwall and Suffolk. The project uses the Cambridge Crime Harm Index (CCHI) to identify the 100 highest-harm VAWG victims over one year in each force, then tracks their CCHI levels over the next 12 months. This delivers an impact assessment of arrests for VAWG on VV-100 victims compared to those who had no suspects arrested. The project also tests arrest rates for VAWG crimes reported against the VV-100 to arrest rates for all other VAWG crimes.

What Works for Survivors: Building the Evidence Infrastructure for Evaluating Specialist VAWG-informed Rape and Sexual Violence Support Services

Organisation: Rape Crisis England & Wales
Funding awarded: £233,647
Fund priority area: VAWG

The Rape Crisis movement comprises an interconnected network of Rape Crisis Centres providing specialist support to adult and child survivors of sexual violence and abuse, alongside outreach, education, advocacy and national systems improvement. This project develops the foundations for future evaluation through stakeholder engagement, evidence review and theory of change development. It assesses the feasibility of economic evaluation and identifies the data, outcome measures, costing methods and infrastructure required to deliver a future large-scale impact and cost-benefit evaluation.

Yellow Door STAR Impact Evaluation

Organisation: Yellow Door
Funding awarded: £27,213
Fund priority area: VAWG

This evaluation project examines how specialist agency Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) sessions contribute to preventing the escalation of misogyny and violence against women and girls (VAWG) and shaping young people’s attitudes towards: Women and gender equality; Masculinity; Gender-based violence; Healthy relationships. It also evaluates how effective these specialist agency sessions are compared with standard school-led RSE provision.

Organisation: Leeds Beckett University
Funding awarded: £99,367
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project delivers a rapid, policy-focused evaluation of Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPOs) of contact and non-contact perpetrators under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime & Policing Act, 2014 and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Using mixed methods, it combines quantitative analysis of reoffending, breach rates and compliance, with qualitative interviews and case file reviews to examine the effectiveness of process and implementation of SHOPOs. Key deliverables include a policy report, operational toolkit for policing, and evidence briefings to support VAWG strategy objectives and improve perpetrator management practices nationally.

Organisation: JUSTICE
Funding awarded: £320,215
Fund priority area: VAWG

Families experiencing domestic abuse and related legal problems go without help for too long because need is unrecognised and referral pathways to effective services do not exist. This project, led by JUSTICE, Dr Natalie Byrom and the University of Liverpool improves data quality across advice and support agencies in Liverpool, develops indicators for VAWG-related legal need in GP records, and refines an existing population-level model to support the targeting of early intervention and robust evaluation of support services. The project aims to create new opportunities to break the cycle of intergenerational abuse, supporting the government’s mission to halve VAWG by 2030.

Mapping What Works: Preventing and Responding to Online Exploitation Networks

Organisation: UCL
Funding awarded: £100,786
Fund priority area: VAWG

Online Exploitation Networks (OENs) are an emerging form of technology-facilitated VAWG associated with harms including sextortion, child sexual exploitation, coercive control, image-based abuse, cyber offending, and encouragement of self-harm and suicide. Building on UKRI-funded research examining pathways to OE perpetration, and with support from the National Crime Agency (NCA), this project develops an interactive Evidence and Gap Map (EGM) organised around OEN harms, associated drivers and mechanisms, and primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention opportunities. The project will deliver an interactive EGM, technical report, three end-user briefings, an intervention and evaluation roadmap, and stakeholder knowledge-exchange events to support evidence-informed intervention development, piloting, and future evaluation.

From Fragmented Data to Prevention: Evaluating Knowledge-Graph-Enabled Intelligence to Optimise VAWG Systems

Organisation: SafeLives
Funding awarded: £234,445
Fund priority area: VAWG

This feasibility and evaluation study assesses whether knowledge-graph-enabled intelligence can improve use of existing domestic abuse and VAWG data to support earlier risk identification, targeted interventions, and more effective multi-agency decision-making. With Sheffield partners, SafeLives, Stem-Tec, Adappt AI and Cardiff University’s HateLab model, the project explores how linking fragmented data across policing, health, local authorities, specialist services and online harms can reveal hidden patterns, escalation pathways and prevention opportunities. Importantly, the project develops validated use cases, test cases and evaluation frameworks that can be replicated nationally, creating a scalable evidence base for VAWG research, evaluation and system improvement UK-wide.

Pathways for Change for preventing and reducing violence to Black and minoritised women and girls in the ‘By and for’ VAWG Sector.

Organisation: Imkaan
Funding awarded: £80,787
Fund priority area: VAWG

In partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of Warwick, this feasibility and capability study aims to strengthen evidence on impact, pathways for change, data gaps and evidence needs in the Black and minoritised ‘by and for’ VAWG sector. It maps interventions, outcomes, and wider system impacts, and produces a draft national outcomes framework for small specialist organisations with limited data capacity. Methods include desktop research, action learning sets and semi-structured interviews with survivors, ‘by and for’ organisations and partner agencies. An Imkaan member Advisory Group ensures the research reflects grassroots frontline expertise and supports future evaluation.

The impact of the section 28 pre-recorded cross-examination special measure on sexual offence cases in Crown Courts

Organisation: City St. George’s, University of London
Funding awarded: £54,585
Fund priority area: VAWG

The use and impact of the section 28 pre-recorded cross-examination special measure in adult rape cases is contested between legal practitioners, the victim advocacy sector, and Government. This project provides a robust evaluation of its impact on case outcomes using HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS)/Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Crown Court administrative data from June 2016 onwards. It directly examines the question at the heart of the controversy of the effect of section 28 on progression and outcomes of sexual offence cases, including the timeliness, pleas, and conviction rates.

VOICE Cornwall: Victim Outcomes, Impact, and Children’s Experiences in DASV Services in Cornwall

Organisation: Cornwall Council
Funding awarded: £66,445
Fund priority area: VAWG

A partnership between Cornwall Council, Barnardo’s children’s charity, and the University of Exeter evaluates Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence services for children and young people across Cornwall. This assesses a collaborative voluntary sector model in a predominantly rural and coastal county. The project analyses historical data to understand referral patterns, outcomes, and value for money. It also tests the feasibility of an impact evaluation of the existing service, incorporating service-user input, data quality assessment, and evaluation methods training for frontline staff. Outputs will inform national VAWG evidence priorities and local government commissioning.

Building Evaluation Readiness for Violence Against Women and Girls: Developing an Integrated Evidence Base and Outcomes Framework in Greater Manchester

Organisation: Manchester Metropolitan University
Funding awarded: £151,485
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project aims to build the evidence infrastructure and evaluation capability needed to support implementation, monitoring and future evaluation of Greater Manchester’s (GM’s) Gender-Based Violence Strategy. Working in partnership with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, it integrates existing evidence with targeted primary evidence generation to produce the first Integrated Victim and Survivor Evidence Base for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) across GM. This evidence base then underpins a co-produced Evaluation-Ready Outcomes Framework, operationalised through ‘actual-state’ and ‘future-state’ logic models, enabling an Evidence and Evaluation Gap Analysis and evidence-informed recommendations for commissioning, governance, recording, partnership working and future evaluation. The approach provides a transferable model for strengthening evidence infrastructure, evaluation capability and implementation of local and national VAWG strategies and action plans.

Breaking Cycles of Harm: Evaluating the Contribution of the Female Justice Partnership to the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls

Organisation: Lancashire Women
Funding awarded: £56,097
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project evaluates how the Female Justice Partnership model helps prevent violence against women and girls by improving wrap-around support for women with complex needs involved in the criminal justice system. The project uses interviews, workshops, document review and analysis of service data to understand what is working, for whom, and why. The evaluation examines impacts of partnership working and trauma-informed approaches through the domestic abuse support, health and resettlement pathways. Deliverables include evaluation reports, recommendations for service improvement, and a transferable delivery model that can be adapted and implemented in other regions.

Evaluating the Respect Make a Change Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme: A Feasibility study to Inform a Full-Scale Evaluation

Organisation: Durham University
Funding awarded: £72,057
Fund priority area: VAWG

Respect has redesigned its ‘Make a Change’ domestic abuse perpetrator programme in line with new international evidence and a values-based approach grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT). The programme also has enhanced its inclusivity for neurodivergence. It is currently running across four sites in England. This project aims to support readiness for a full-scale RCT or quasi-experimental impact evaluation, focusing on evaluation design, data collection, and implementation processes. By strengthening trial readiness, the study enables robust future evidence on a scalable intervention, supporting national efforts to reduce domestic abuse, improve responses to perpetrator behaviour, and halve VAWG.

A comparative assessment of experiences and outcomes for child and adult victims and survivors accessing specialist rape and sexual abuse services.

Organisation: Anglia Ruskin University
Funding awarded: £37,995
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project aims to generate actionable evidence on tackling sexual violence and supporting children and young people. Through secondary analysis of anonymised case management records relating to victims and survivors accessing specialist rape and sexual abuse services in the east of England, the research examines victim characteristics, patterns of victimisation, and reporting behaviours, evaluates the provision and quality of specialist rape and sexual abuse services, and assesses health, wellbeing, and criminal justice outcomes. By explicitly comparing the experiences and outcomes for children and adult victims, the research targets the fund’s early intervention and prevention priorities.

Understanding Public Trust in Automated Vehicle Services: Evaluating Communication and Engagement Strategies for Safe Deployment in the UK

Organisation: King’s College London
Funding awarded: £142,783
Fund priority area: General

As Automated Vehicle (AV) services move towards commercial deployment in the UK, local governments and authorities require robust evidence to understand public perceptions of AVs and their expectations of future AV services. This project undertakes a rapid evidence assessment of AV public engagement research to first inform the design of behaviourally informed communication and engagement strategies; and then refine and test approaches that improve understanding and enable the public to make informed decisions about AV adoption using an adaptive five-wave randomised controlled trial with a nationally representative UK sample. Working with a local authority owned innovation company DG Cities and DfT, the project will produce a public engagement playbook for local authorities.

When Victims Ask AI: A Feasibility Study Evaluating Chatbot Safety for Coercive Control and Non-Physical Domestic Abuse.

Organisation: City St George’s University of London
Funding awarded: £167,007
Fund priority area: VAWG

LLM-based chatbots are increasingly used as accessible, private sources of support for domestic abuse. This feasibility study evaluates whether current chatbots can safely respond to non-physical domestic abuse scenarios, including coercive control, economic abuse, and technology-facilitated abuse. Using clinically validated, scenario-based testing across multiple leading models, we assess response safety, accuracy, and robustness. Led by The Centre for Online-Safety, Safeguarding, Privacy and Identity (COSPI) at City St George’s, University of London, and VAWG Partner Organisations: Refuge, Women’s Aid, Barnardos and Glitch, outputs include a benchmark scenario suite, a failure-mode taxonomy, and recommendations for developers, policymakers, and frontline services.

Safer Schools: Developing a place-based approach to preventing violence against women and girls through early intervention in primary schools

Organisation: University of York
Funding awarded: £104,543
Fund priority area: VAWG

Safer Schools aims to contribute to reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG) by generating evidence to improve early intervention. VAWG is underpinned by harmful gendered practices, including online harms, in primary schools. While this is a key area of concern for teachers, there is sparse evidence about effective primary-level VAWG interventions. Safer Schools advances understanding by: 1. generating new evidence about harmful gendered practices in primary schools, 2. developing an evidence-based outcomes framework, and 3. reaching Delphi consensus on national guidelines for primary-school VAWG interventions. These outputs will provide a clear basis for future evaluation of primary-school VAWG prevention activities.

Machine learning, human judgement and the targeting of employment support: evidence from the Weekly Work Search Review trial

Organisation: University of Westminster
Funding awarded: £85,685
Fund priority area: General

DWP’s Weekly Work Search Review (WWSR) trial randomised around 25,000 JSA claimants to either weekly or fortnightly work search reviews. It was analysed using unusually rich data, combining DWP/HMRC employment, earnings and benefits records with questionnaire data, including claimants’ self-assessed employability and work coaches’ assessments of claimant’s employability and their likely responsiveness to WWSR. This project uses machine learning (ML) to predict individuals’ outcomes and impacts, comparing algorithmic predictions with human judgments. It examines whether ML-based targeting can improve on universal assignment or human-based targeting and explores equity-efficiency trade-offs in algorithmic targeting of employment support.

A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial of Cornwall Council’s Youth Engagement Project (YEP!)

Organisation: Youth Futures Foundation
Funding awarded: £250,091
Fund priority area: General

This project funds a pilot and full randomised controlled trial (RCT) of Cornwall Council’s Youth Engagement Project (YEP!), a multi-component employment support programme for young people who are NEET. The evaluation compares YEP! to lower-intensity employment support using individual-level randomisation, drawing programme data sources to measure education, employment and training (EET) outcomes, alongside secondary outcomes such as confidence, skills and work readiness. The pilot (2026–27) tests feasibility of recruitment, randomisation and data systems, with findings informing refinement ahead of a fully powered RCT delivering causal impact and cost-effectiveness estimates by 2028.

Building Routine Data Capacity for Steps to Safety

Organisation: University of Bristol
Funding awarded: £132,091
Fund priority area: VAWG

Steps to Safety is a national programme being rolled out across England to help general practices identify and refer people affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV) to specialist support. It is a UK Government priority for halving violence against women and girls. This project tests whether a standard health and wellbeing measure, EQ-5D, can be collected routinely and sensitively within DASV specialist services. Using existing data and implementation learning from Bristol and South Gloucestershire, it assesses the feasibility, acceptability and data infrastructure requirements for national reporting, and develops an early cost-effectiveness template for Integrated Care Boards.

Feasibility Study for Domestic Abuse Interventions

Organisation: Ministry of Justice
Funding awarded: £100,000
Fund priority area: VAWG

A feasibility study examines the most suitable impact evaluation design for domestic abuse interventions, with reoffending as the outcome measure. The feasibility study assesses available data and holds stakeholder consultations to determine suitable impact evaluation designs, exploring common experimental and quasi-experimental methods and making recommendations on the top 2-3 designs.

Connected Harms: Building Police Capacity to Respond to Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls

Organisation: The Centre for Protecting Women Online
Funding awarded: £81,815
Fund priority area: VAWG

This feasibility study establishes the evidence foundations needed to evaluate capacity-building interventions for policing technology-facilitated violence against women and girls (TF-VAWG). Despite expanding legal frameworks and growing awareness, no nationally-scaled benchmark of police readiness exists. Using a national benchmarking survey across all 43 Home Office forces and in-depth case studies in two forces with embedded legal analysis, the project assesses readiness across structural, cultural, and capability dimensions, delivering a cross-force readiness benchmark, grounded operational evidence, a prototype Connected Harms Readiness Framework, and a Phase 2 evaluation design to support a future funded intervention evaluation.

Organisation: Southall Black Sisters
Funding awarded: £92,136
Fund priority area: VAWG

The Safe and Sane project addresses a significant evidence gap by investigating the prevalence, characteristics and costs of abuse-related-suicide and attempted suicide, including so-called ‘honour’-related suicide, among Black, minoritised and migrant (BMM) women and girls experiencing violence against women and girls (VAWG) in England. It also assesses the effectiveness of intervention and prevention models developed by specialist ‘by and for’ BMM organisations. Using a rapid evidence review, analysis of Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) data and relevant Domestic Abuse Related Death Review (DARDR) data where available, together with surveys, interviews and focus groups, the project aims to generate evidence on prevalence, costs and effective practice, culminating in a final report, recommendations, an economic framework and a feasibility framework for future national research.

Building the evaluation capability of specialist, place-based frontline VAWG organisations

Organisation: Rosa Fund
Funding awarded: £62,825
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project aims to strengthen the evaluation capability of small, specialist, women-led VAWG organisations in England to improve the evidence base supporting the Government’s VAWG Strategy and Action Plan. The project works with a small cohort of organisations, an academic partner and a steering group of expert stakeholders, to analyse existing data, identify common outcomes and gaps to co-produce a shared outcomes framework. Through peer learning, networking and training, organisations build skills and confidence and share expertise. By March 2027, the programme will deliver the framework, guidance and insights for dissemination to policymakers, commissioners, funders and the wider VAWG sector.

Directly awarded VAWG projects

Three impact evaluations of domestic abuse recovery and support services for babies, children and young people

Organisation: Foundations (What Works Centre for Children and Families)
Funding awarded: £864,383
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project carries out full-scale evaluations of two recovery interventions for children and young people affected by domestic abuse (WeMatter and BB4K), and sets up a pilot impact evaluation for a promising whole-family approach where domestic abuse is a concern in the family (For Baby’s Sake). The full evaluations include a waitlist randomised controlled trial (RCT) measuring parent- and child-level outcomes, an implementation and process evaluation, and a cost evaluation. Building on a ‘test & learn’ approach to determine the most feasible and acceptable impact evaluation design, the pilot will test the impact evaluation design.

Digital Life Course Tool (DLCT)

Organisation: College of Policing (What Works Centre for Crime Reduction)
Funding awarded: £47,453
Fund priority area: VAWG

The project expands the focus of the Digital Life Course Tool (DLCT), an innovative concept mapping cross-sector ‘What Works’ evidence across the life course, to identify when and where interventions can most effectively prevent harm. to cover Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). User research tests the DLCT’s validity, feasibility and usefulness for strategic and operational audiences; and the creation of a wireframe prototype based on research findings. The work explores how different users interact with evidence, what features they need, and any organisational constraints. Outputs will form the foundation for future development and funding opportunities.

Innovation Accelerator: Preventing VAWG in public spaces

Organisation: College of Policing (What Works Centre for Crime Reduction)
Funding awarded: £527,425
Fund priority area: VAWG

This project brings together multi-agency teams to develop and test solutions using an innovation accelerator methodology. An innovation accelerator is a structured, time-limited programme that enables cross-sector teams to rapidly co-develop, test, and refine new ideas in real-world settings. A range of prototypes focused on ways to improve safety of women in the night-time economy (NTE) is delivered along with evidence on which should be sustained and scaled up. The accelerator approach may then be expanded and applied to VAWG in other types of public space.

Directly awarded local government projects

Strengthening evaluation for emerging resilience interventions in the London Resilience Unit

Organisation: Greater London Authority
Funding awarded: £70,000
Fund priority area: General

This project develops evaluation approaches for two MHCLG-funded resilience interventions: Trailblazers, a portfolio of projects for local resilience arrangements, and C-Stat, an AI-tool for assessing and predicting risks across the city. Using a common evaluation and learning framework of engage, test, capture evidence, learn and adapt, the project undertakes an evidence review, stakeholder engagement and analysis of monitoring information. The project will refine the Trailblazer programme Theory of Change, evaluate the fit-for-purpose of the City Status AI model and generate proportionate evidence on implementation of emerging outcomes, support continuous improvement, and identify priorities for future evaluation and learning.

Evaluation support to the OPSI programme

Organisation: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Funding awarded: £80,000
Fund priority area: General

The Office for Public Service Innovation (OPSI) is a partnership between the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, local authorities, public service providers and the third sector. It brings organisations and communities together to improve public services and tackle long-term, complex challenges, using a Test and Learn approach. This project will gather initial evidence of whether OPSI has established a convincing proof of concept in its first year, and conduct a feasibility study to assess options for future impact evaluation. Lessons from this work will be of value to other local areas adopting and evaluating Test-and-Learn approaches to address public service challenges.

Operationalising the West Yorkshire Outcomes Framework: Evaluation, Evidence, and Strategic Decision-Making

Organisation: West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Funding awarded: £80,000
Fund priority area: General

This project aims to research and develop an Evaluation Strategy aligned to the newly created West Yorkshire Outcomes Framework. The strategic framework will be devised following a literature review and alongside consultation and engagement with internal and external stakeholders. The output will enable the design, implementation and realisation of key portfolio evaluations involving focussed place-based public policy and financial interventions by the Combined Authority, supporting evidence-based decisions, policy, and delivery. The work will also establish operational and methodological models of good practice, of wider relevance to other MSAs facing similar challenges under the Integrated Settlement.

Retrospective evaluation of the Adult Skills Fund and development of a future M&E Framework

Organisation: West of England Combined Authority
Funding awarded: £66,200
Fund priority area: General

This project evaluates the effectiveness of Adult Skills Fund provision in the West of England Combined Authority region by assessing how successfully it has contributed to the priorities of the Adult Skills Fund and wider Combined Authority. The project combines a retrospective analysis of reach, strategic alignment and commissioning outcomes with the development of a Monitoring and Evaluation framework to address key evidence gaps and strengthen future decision-making. Together, these outputs will be used to support improvements to the design, delivery and evaluation of Adult Skills Fund provision, as well as to inform future commissioning and investment decisions.

Improving the evaluation of educational improvement programmes and understanding the early signs of promise and opportunity for the Excellence in Education programme

Organisation: North East Mayoral Strategic Authority
Funding awarded: £80,000
Fund priority area: General

This project delivers two interdependent outputs: an Evaluation & Measurement Framework Report for Education Improvement and a report on the Results of a Midpoint Evidence Sprint for the Excellence in Education programme. The first report seeks to identify robust, feasible measures in the area of education improvement that are relevant to this and successive programmes. The second will test those measures in practice and provide insight into their feasibility. By working with participating schools, the project gathers school leader’s views on relevant programmes against indicative measures, utilising follow-up case study interviews to further contextualise the data, test assumptions and build upon the theory of change.

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