Research and development services and related consultancy services

Tender description

The Evidence and Impact Exchange will seek to foster a culture of evidence-led policy and practice in Higher Education (HE). It will be an ambitious project, independent of government and the Office for Students (OfS), which will develop strong evidence around effective approaches relating to access and participation in HE, and will support implementation by decision makers and practitioners. Its goal will be to improve outcomes for students who are underrepresented in higher education or have unequal opportunities to succeed, by supporting the translation of evidence into more effective approaches on the ground. The EIX forms part of the OfS’s wider agenda to develop a culture of evidence-led practice and continuous improvement across HE delivery. This includes establishing and driving a strong evidence base and effectively translating, communicating and fostering the adoption of the evidence to key relevant stakeholders. See VI.3) for more detail. Services required: The invitation to tender will invite proposals for the establishment of an independent Evidence and Impact Exchange (EIX). The Office for Students (OfS) will fund the EIX for 3 years (up to 1 500 000 GBP per annum), with a view to the Exchange being fully financially sustainable following the initial funding period. The objectives and expected outcomes of the EIX would be to: — develop rigorous independent and high quality evidence as it relates to access and participation in higher education and its contribution to social justice and mobility, — improve efficacy of policy, interventions and initiatives to support access and participation using high quality evidence, — provide greater visibility, awareness and take-up of what works well in different contexts, prompting the scale up and expansion of approaches that have proven impact, — enhance skills and capability to develop and use evidence in the sector, — drive collective responsibility in higher education for the generation, evaluation and use of relevant high quality evidence to inform policy and practice, — engage and develop relationships with key organisations that produce research and analysis of relevance to access and participation in HE, — enhance value for students, HE providers and society, — be an authoritative voice for research on access and participation in higher education. It is expected the EIX will do this by: — collating, synthesising and reviewing existing research, evidence and data in a consistent, systematic way to identify what is known across the sector and bring it together into a central repository, taking into account open access and copyright issues and restrictions, — establishing clear expectations and standards for the development of high quality evidence, including the peer review of existing evidence; exploring where experimental methods (such as Randomised Control Trials) can and should be used, or where other qualitative methods would be more appropriate; and supporting the use of robust standards of evidence in both the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of access and participation interventions and approaches, — developing the evidence by identifying gaps in evidence and commissioning new high quality evidence to improve the sector’s knowledge around effective practice, — translating existing and new evidence into easily accessible guidance and resources in ways that are accessible to different audiences, — creating and promoting the development of a single searchable digital repository that can be utilised by a range of audiences, — driving and supporting the dissemination and implementation of findings into practice, especially at organisational level, — supporting decision-makers and practitioners to understand the importance and utility of research in order to promote a culture of evidence-led practice, — supporting the development of a coherent learning infrastructure across the HE sector in relation to access and participation, that will enable and foster learning, — building capacity for using evidence effectively on approaches to access and participation in HE and the contribution this makes to wider social justice and mobility. The Exchange will require strong leadership and the chosen supplier will need to attract a Director who will lead and contribute a substantial proportion of their time to the successful set-up and implementation of the EIX. The EIX Director should be respected in the research field and have a demonstrable high-quality track record of delivering large-scale and complex projects to timetable, with experience of working with a range of partners and engagement with policy and practice. They should be balanced and independent, able to act as figurehead and lead the EIX in putting forward a credible, evidence-led view of current and emerging debates in this area.