Understanding 'what works': Evidence based regional policy making in England.

CONCLUSIONS: A central finding of the thesis is the need for a more nuanced approach to the generation and use of evidence. This is in contrast to imposing a quality criteria specific to one type of study design (e.g. experimental methods) or allowing for cherry-picked and unsystematic evidence use within policy making processes. It is also argued that the development of a knowledge translation tool, operationalised through an evaluation and monitoring framework from the start of an organisation's existence, may facilitate the collection of more appropriate, decision-relevant data linked to an underlying programme theory. This would enable a tangible understanding of how data is to be aggregated, highlight any knowledge gaps and facilitate data-linking to other intelligence sources. The inclusion of policy makers early in the research process may also enable the generation of problem-driven evidence and shape an understanding of how such evidence supports decision making.