Introducing our second cohort
Introducing…the EW2 cohort!
Something that makes the EW2 experience special to us is the new partners we have onboard. We won’t name all 31 of our experts directly here, but suffice to say we have experts from both inside the federal family and from outside, namely from the Government of British Columbia, Evidence for Democracy (E4D), and a couple universities — welcome to you all and we are so grateful for your participation in this project!
As we mentioned, we launched a Government of Canada-wide call for proposals in Fall 2019, and we were overwhelmed with interest from across the system. Today, EW2 is running with support and participation of 17 federal departments representing over a dozen project teams (both experimental and exploratory), and a number of observe & learn teams.
To give you a fuller sense of the diversity of projects themselves, we’ve provided below the active* projects’ starting research questions (these, in no apparent order):
Post-Incorporation (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada)
Does improving how we deliver knowledge to clients increase the rate of keeping a corporation in good standing and avoid dissolution?
Talent Cloud (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)
As we introduce new tools and interventions into the staffing process, which ones are actually improving time to staff and quality of fit?
Sustainability Assurance Systems (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)
Does seeing sustainability assurances (labels, logos or claims) on food products influence a consumer’s purchasing decision?
Youth Program Navigator (Employment and Social Development Canada)
What intervention point(s) have the most promise to connect youth to Youth Employment and Skills Strategy program services providers?
Self-Identification (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)
How can we craft and administer our self-ID form to increase the frequency and accuracy with which public servants self-ID?
Valuation of Free Online Services (Statistics Canada)
What are the median valuations that Canadian consumers place on free online services, what are their utilization rates, & what are the implications for each on conventional economic output & welfare measures?
Multi-species Conservation (Environment and Climate Change Canada)
Where can conservation benefits be optimized for caribou and migratory birds?
The PRODigy Project (Health Canada)
Do user-centered modifications to the existing incident reporting form result in an increased form?
Diplomacy Insights (Global Affairs Canada)
Can the effectiveness of Canada’s public diplomacy advocacy programs abroad be improved by increased use of data?
Gs&Cs Application Completion Rates (Employment and Social Development Canada)
How does Employment and Social Development Canada’s application guidance package affect completion rates of grants and contribution applications?
Meaningful Messaging (Global Affairs Canada)
What mechanisms are most effective to ensure our evaluation messages are understood and used to influence decision making?
*We’ve had three other projects unfortunately interrupted because of COVID-19 — the year 2020 ended up being a very atypical year, so the teams considered that continuing to run their experiment this year would likely not provide meaningful insights.
A cursory glance at these projects shows projects exploring the future of work (TBS), tackling climate change (AAFC, ECCC), and one in each of the following: helping the middle class (ESDC); delivering better services to Canadians (ESDC); and, engaging effectively internationally (GAC).
We are excited about the possibility of teams learning from one another within the same themes but across themes as well. These projects will also be good examples for future experiments to come under similar domains.
Starting later this month, we will be doing deeper dives on all these individual projects and posting the expertise and insights of many of the EW2 experts, so do continue to follow along on the EW2 journey as it unfolds.
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Post by the TBS EW project team: Dan Monafu, Sarah Chan, Pierre-Olivier Bédard.
Article également disponible en français ici: https://medium.com/@exp_oeuvre
