Evaluation Accelerator Fund (Phase 4)

The Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF) provides funding to government departments and other organisations to improve the evaluation of policies and programmes. It supports projects that develop innovative evaluation approaches and aims to enhance the quality and use of evidence in decision-making.

The key aims of the EAF are to:

• accelerate evaluation activity and the creation of actionable evidence in HM Government priority areas to inform decision-making at fiscal events

• tackle evidence gaps in HM Government priority areas by building the evidence base where departments and What Works Centres are not currently undertaking activity

• provide robust evidence of financial or efficiency savings from policies and interventions, or innovative approaches to service delivery

The EAF has up to £3.5 million available in the 2025/26 financial year. The total amount available will be confirmed as part of the Cabinet Office's business planning process.

Funding is available for one-year projects which start in May 2025 and conclude by March 2026. All projects, with only a handful of exceptions, will be expected to produce findings that are shareable with the ETF and government partners by March 2026. 

In Phase 4, the EAF is particularly seeking to support projects that:

• evaluate the impacts of AI in the public sector

• deliver retrospective or long-term follow-up evaluations (which measure long-term impacts of previous or existing programmes

More broadly, we are open to proposals to deliver impact evaluations, and we have a preference for funding experimental or quasi-experimental evaluations. Please refer to the bidding guidance for further details.