Plural evidence
Administrative data, quantitative research, qualitative inquiry, practitioner knowledge and lived experience each reveal different parts of a public system.
A European policy research institute
Public policy, designed to learn.
Civic Method Institute helps European public institutions turn complex policy questions into evidence-informed choices, credible implementation strategies and continuous institutional learning.
Institutional mission
Building Europe’s capacity to design, test and continuously improve public policy.
Our purpose
Strengthening Europe’s capacity to govern under uncertainty.
Public decisions increasingly operate within connected technological, social, environmental, economic and geopolitical systems.
CMI helps institutions make uncertainty explicit, bring different forms of evidence into the same decision process, examine credible alternatives and build learning into implementation from the beginning.
Our role is not to replace democratic judgment with technical expertise. It is to make the evidence, assumptions, consequences and trade-offs surrounding that judgment clearer.
Our work
Evidence across the policy lifecycle.
Support organized around the moments when institutions need to decide, adapt and learn.
Before a decision
Design and anticipate
- Clarify the public objective
- Synthesize available evidence
- Compare credible policy options
- Stress-test assumptions and feasibility
During implementation
Test and adapt
- Design pilots and learning protocols
- Observe operational and behavioural effects
- Identify emerging risks
- Adapt without losing policy intent
After outcomes emerge
Evaluate and learn
- Compare intended and observed effects
- Examine who benefited and who did not
- Capture transferable lessons
- Recommend continuation, redesign or termination
The Civic Method
A rigorous structure for learning through policy.
Policy design, implementation and evaluation connected within one continuous evidence process.
- 01
Define
What public value are we trying to create, and for whom?
Typical outputDecision mandate
- 02
Understand
What systems, institutions, incentives and lived realities shape the problem?
Typical outputEvidence and system map
- 03
Formulate
Which mechanisms could produce the intended change?
Typical outputTheory of change
- 04
Compare
What are the consequences, trade-offs and implementation needs of each option?
Typical outputPolicy options appraisal
- 05
Test
Which assumptions can be piloted, simulated or stress-tested before scale?
Typical outputTesting protocol
- 06
Learn
What evidence will determine whether the policy should continue, adapt or stop?
Typical outputEvaluation framework
Proportionate by design. The Civic Method is not a rigid sequence. Its depth and form depend on the decision, available evidence and consequences of being wrong.
Read the full methodStandards of practice
What makes the method civic.
Commitments that constrain how evidence is interpreted, decisions are framed and testing is conducted.
Explicit assumptions
Causal assumptions, uncertainty and value judgments are made visible rather than hidden inside recommendations.
Institutional feasibility
A policy is not credible unless institutions can legally, administratively and politically implement it.
Distributional attention
We examine how costs, benefits and risks are distributed across places and populations.
Proportionate experimentation
Testing must respect democratic legitimacy, legal constraints, ethics and the consequences of failure.
Learning by design
Evaluation questions, indicators and feedback mechanisms belong in the design—not after the decision.
Institutional memory
Make the reasoning available to the next decision.
A durable record connects public intent to evidence, action, observed outcomes and adaptation.
- Objective
- Evidence
- Assumptions
- Options
- Decision
- Observed outcomes
- Adaptation
Founding research agenda
The capabilities European policymaking needs next.
The first programme is in development. Its status is shown plainly; no completed research is implied.
CMI–2026Research agenda
In development
→The capabilities European policymaking needs next
CMI's founding agenda focuses on decisions under deep uncertainty, evaluation that changes decisions, and durable institutional memory.
Institutional integrity
Credibility must be designed into the institution.
Governance claims will follow published structures—not precede them.
- 01Independence and protection of research judgment
- 02Funding transparency for each programme
- 03Declared and managed conflicts of interest
- 04Methodological review, correction and version history
- 05Ethical responsibility for data, participation and experimentation
Current statusThe legal structure, funding model and formal governance bodies are not yet published. This site does not claim those controls are already operational.
View governance statusWorking with CMI
Begin with the policy question.
CMI welcomes conversations with public institutions, research organizations and public-interest foundations confronting consequential policy questions.