The Iterative BES Programme has been one of a number of case studies considered in a series of OECD meetings focussed on evidence-based policy research. This paper builds upon two earlier papers prepared for OECD meetings describing the rationale for the programme and its brokerage role across policy, research and practice. The first paper in the series was for the 2004 joint OECD/United States Evidence Based Policy Research Conference. In that initial paper, because of the marked differences between our approach and federal US approaches, considerable attention was given to the rationale for our realist and fit-for-purpose methodological approach to synthesising bodies of evidence. That paper explained for BES development: the importance afforded local context, the rigorous pluralist approach, the search for theoretical coherence, and the use of a ‘jigsaw methodology’ to synthesise research that provides credible evidence about influences on a range of desired outcomes for diverse learners (the what, what magnitude of impact, under what conditions, for whom, why, and how).
The second paper prepared for the 2005 joint OECD/Netherlands Evidence Based Policy Research [EBPR2] Conference – Linking Evidence to Practice, focussed on the model and role of the Iterative BES Programme as a brokerage agency for evidence-based policy research across policy, research and practice.