Public contribution
Methods and research status are published so that claims can be understood, challenged and reused.
The Institute
European in purpose. Exact about evidence.
Civic Method Institute develops methods and research for policy design, evaluation and institutional learning.
Mission
Improve the evidence and reasoning available to democratic institutions.
Public decisions must often be made before uncertainty disappears. The relevant standard is disciplined reasoning, proportionate testing and the ability to respond when outcomes differ from expectations.
CMI connects policy design, implementation and evaluation so that assumptions can be challenged before a decision and learning can change what happens afterwards.
Founding focus
Public health, nutrition and food systems.
The initial programme concentrates on a domain where public objectives, scientific evidence, commercial conduct, lived environments and implementation capacity interact directly.
This focus includes evidence synthesis, food-policy appraisal, monitoring and evaluation, corporate food-sector assessment, stakeholder research and the communication of scientific findings.
Explore the four practicesInstitutional model
Knowledge that remains useful after a decision.
Decision relevance
Outputs are shaped around the legal, administrative and political conditions in which a decision occurs.
Institutional memory
Decision records connect objectives, evidence, assumptions, outcomes and later adaptations.
Public record
Authority should be visible where it exists.
Research items identify their authorship, status, version, funding position, conflicts, review and limitations. No project relationship or observed result is implied without a corresponding public record.
Working 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.