Evidence-based practice and policy: When researchers, policy makers, and practitioners learn how to work together

Abstract

The present paper focuses on evidence-based practice and policy with a specific focus on the cooperation between researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. The evidence-based practice movement has gained greatly in impact in recent years and standards for research leading to evidence-based practice have been defined. However, the slow and incomplete uptake of research findings especially in the field of education obviously has shown that the development, implementation, and dissemination of sustainable strategies requires intensive cooperation between researchers, politicians, administrators, and the media. This paper presents and discusses (1) standards of evidence; (2) the use and implementation of scientific evidence in policy and practice; (3) the development of the National Strategy for Violence Prevention in the Austrian Public School System as a successful example for establishing a sustainable cooperation between research, policy, and practice; and (4) lessons learned for the promotion of evidence-based policy and practice.