Alliance for Useful Evidence team announced by Nesta and the ESRC

April 2012

Nesta and the ESRC are delighted to announce Jonathan Breckon as Manager of the Alliance for Useful Evidence. He will be supported by Eloise Stott as Alliance Co-ordinator. Jonathan will take forward the Alliance’s programme of work from the end of April 2012.

Jonathan Breckon has 14 years' experience in policy, research and public affairs. His expertise lies particularly in brokering relationships between decision-makers and researchers from across disciplines - social sciences, engineering, science and the humanities.  He joins Nesta from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) where he was Director of Policy and Public Affairs.  He is also a consultant working on a government-funded project developing quantitative skills in the social sciences.

Jonathan says: "I am very excited about this new role.  I believe strongly in making evidence count and being open to innovative research and practice to find what works, and what doesn't.  There is not always a meeting of minds between researchers and the decision-makers.  However, right now there is a buzz about the Alliance and the power of evidence in social policy.  I look forward to building on this interest and working with all the supporters of the Alliance to raise the quality of both the supply of - and demand for - evidence."

Ruth Puttick who has been leading the development of the Alliance to date will now be leading Nesta's wider programme of work on evidence. This recognises the huge contribution Ruth has made in the early stages of the development of the Alliance for Useful Evidence.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

About the Alliance

The Alliance for Useful Evidence is a new and exciting initiative being developed by Nesta and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Our aim is to bring together a diverse, global community of individuals and organisations.  Our ambition is to provide a focal point for the evidence agenda, fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing and debate to help make the most of the excellent work already underway to raise the quality of both the supply and demand for evidence based social policy.

We want the Alliance for Useful Evidence to ensure rigorous evidence is available, it is useable, but most importantly, it is used. In a time of limited resource, we need to be spending what money is available on the best, most successful approaches. To identify these we need research and evidence. In some areas there is knowledge about what is - and what isn't - effective, but in other areas there may be little known about what is successful. The situation is complicated further by the fact that there are many instances where research is available, but is ignored.  The hope is that the Alliance for Evidence will change this situation.

Please contact Dr Jo Casebourne for further details.

Further details about the Alliance for Useful Evidence are available here.

About Nesta

Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation. We help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. We do this by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills.

We are an independent charity and our work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery.

Nesta Operating Company is a registered charity in England and Wales with a company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833. Registered office: 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE

www.nesta.org.uk   

About ESRC 

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2011/12 is £203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk