2026Research agendaIn 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.
A European policy research initiative
Public policy, designed to learn.
Civic Method Institute develops rigorous methods for designing, testing and evaluating public policy, with a founding focus on public health, nutrition and food systems.
Institutional mission
Building Europe’s capacity to design, test and continuously improve public policy.
Founding focus
Public health, nutrition and food systems.
Research and policy work connecting nutrition evidence, food environments, commercial practices, public decisions and evaluation.
- 01
Public health and nutrition evidence
Establish what is known, contested and consequential before choosing an intervention.
- 02
Food policy and corporate accountability
Examine how public rules and commercial practices shape healthy and sustainable diets.
- 03
Monitoring, evaluation and institutional learning
Connect implementation evidence to timely decisions about continuation, adaptation or termination.
- 04
Research, consultation and capacity
Create research processes and public knowledge that institutions can understand, challenge and use.
Public purpose
Make uncertainty, assumptions and consequences visible.
Public institutions must often decide before uncertainty disappears. Better evidence should clarify the choice, make implementation more credible and establish how later learning will change the decision.
The role of policy research is not to replace democratic judgement with technical expertise. It is to make the evidence, assumptions, alternatives and trade-offs surrounding that judgement easier to examine.
Policy lifecycle
Evidence before, during and after a decision.
Support organised 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 traceable structure for learning through policy.
Six governing questions connect public purpose, evidence, options, implementation and evaluation.
- 01Define
What public value are we trying to create, and for whom?
- 02Understand
What systems, institutions, incentives and lived realities shape the problem?
- 03Formulate
Which mechanisms could produce the intended change?
- 04Compare
What are the consequences, trade-offs and implementation requirements of each option?
- 05Test
Which assumptions can be piloted, simulated or stress-tested before scale?
- 06Learn
What evidence will determine whether the policy should continue, adapt or stop?
Current research
A research agenda, clearly identified as such.
Status, authorship, funding position, review and limitations accompany every research item.
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Public accountability
Research claims should carry their evidence conditions.
CMI’s public research record identifies whether work is an agenda or publication, who authored it, how it was funded, how it was reviewed and what it cannot establish.
Read the public research standardWorking with CMI
Begin with the policy question.
Public institutions, research organisations and public-interest foundations can approach CMI with a consequential policy question, its decision context and the evidence already available.