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Education funders and partners unite to strengthen global evidence use to accelerate learning
In a landmark step for education, 16 leading organizations have come together to back a central resource that will make evidence on what works for children and learning more accessible, actionable, and globally relevant. This kind of collective action is rare: while billions are spent each year on education, too little of it is guided by reliable evidence. By pooling expertise and resources, the signatories are addressing a longstanding challenge—how to translate a fast-growing evidence base into policy and practice that improves learning for all.
In climate change and health, access to large repositories of accessible and real-time data has long informed policymaking and high-level decisions worldwide. Never before has this been achieved for education, where access to accurate information on what has worked in different geographic contexts is needed now more than ever before.
This common commitment from education organizations comes as the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC)—an initiative led by the Wellcome Trust—announces a USD 126 million investment in establishing a global evidence architecture to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before the 2030 deadline. ESIC is supported by 35+ cross-sector organizations, including the Jacobs Foundation. This education sector initiative is a foundational investment in the ESIC road map.
The full ‘Statement of Intent’ below is co-signed by: Campbell Collaboration, Durham University, Education Endowment Foundation, Effective Basic Services (eBASE) Africa, EPPI Center, ESRC, Future Evidence Foundation, Innovations for Poverty Action, Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Jacobs Center, Jacobs Foundation, The LEGO Foundation, Porticus, viaEd, Wellcome Trust, and the What Works Hub for Global Education.
STATEMENT OF INTENT
A collective initiative to support evidence synthesis and use in education
Much of the USD 5.8 trillion spent on education every year is not guided by evidence on what we know about children and learning. While the education evidence base is growing fast, challenges persist around evidence synthesis, translation, and use. For example, synthesizing evidence into clear, trustworthy policy- and practitioner-friendly guidelines is unnecessarily expensive and time-consuming.
In response, we are delighted to announce this collective initiative to build and test a synthesis-ready evidence repository for the education sector. Together, we will:
• Pool existing evidence data with a co-created sector taxonomy into a shared repository.
• Conduct a global and open RFP for evidence intermediaries and EdLabs (particularly in the Global South) to test a “minimum viable product” of the repository during 2026, by producing syntheses in response to country-based policy and practice needs.
The repository will be a ‘back-end tool’ designed to make the work of evidence intermediaries much more efficient. It will build upon and support a broader evidence synthesis infrastructure coalescing around the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC). It is an important step in making user-centred and contextually relevant synthesis the norm, especially in resource-constrained environments.
Depending on what we learn during 2026, we aim to scale the initiative much further in 2027. We intend that this relatively small investment in evidence infrastructure will have an exponential impact on children’s learning.
ENDS
At the Jacobs Foundation, we see this collaboration as a cornerstone of our long-term commitment to transforming education systems. By spearheading the use of globally accessible, real-time data and information, we aim to catalyze systemic change and ensure that decision-makers everywhere can act on the best available evidence. This effort is one of many steps we are taking to build a future where every child can learn and thrive.
On 21 September 2025, the Jacobs Foundation participated in a side event during the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, organized by ESIC, to acknowledge the multi-million investment into building a global evidence repository.