Press release

NatCen appointed to the UK Government Evaluation & Trial Advice Panel

Martina Vojtkova and Andi Fugard have been appointed to the UK Government’s Evaluation & Trial Advice Panel (ETAP).
  • Publishing date:
    6 March 2023

Martina Vojtkova, Director of the Policy Research Centre, and Andi Fugard, Deputy Director of the Centre for Evaluation, at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) have been appointed to the UK Government’s Evaluation & Trial Advice Panel (ETAP) to support the design and delivery of robust, high-quality evaluation across government.

Managed by the Evaluation Task Force, the Panel provides free advice to government departments and What Works Centres when designing evaluations. Since its launch in 2015, the Panel has advised on over 160 programmes and policies, spanning a range of policy areas including crime, education, employment and more

Martina Vojtkova and Andi Fugard join the Panel as part of the next term of panel members. The appointment is for 2 years, from March 2023, with the opportunity to extend for an additional year. 

Martina Vojtkova, Director of the Policy Research Centre at NatCen, says: “NatCen has over 50 years’ experience of working in social research with government and other stakeholders. Every year our dedicated Centre for Evaluation delivers a number of different evaluations of programmes to help understand what works. We are delighted to be sharing our expertise on this Evaluation & Trial Advice Panel which connects with our charitable aims of making life better through high quality social research and evaluation.”

Andi Fugard, Deputy Director of the Centre for Evaluation, adds: “Evaluation is an important part of all policies and programmes, to help government and other organisations discover what is and isn’t working and why. At NatCen we are passionate about ensuring the public’s voice is heard to help shape policy decisions and services that affect their lives. We look forward to working with government and Evaluation & Trial Advice Panel members to further support evidence-based policy-making.”

For more information and examples of ETAP's work, see here.

If you would like to get in touch with the Panel, please email trialadvicepanel@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.