The British Academy approach to Monitoring & Evaluation
Why do we monitor and evaluate our programs?
The British Academy is committed to making evidence-based decisions to maximise its impact and effectively champion the SHAPE disciplines. The Academy values monitoring and evaluation as an enabler for the successful delivery of its strategic priorities and to inform future planning of its programmes.
Through monitoring and evaluation, we can track progress and outcomes, ensuring our funding is more effective in supporting high-quality, impactful SHAPE research that benefits society.
Monitoring and evaluation help identify challenges, improve programme delivery, and adapt to emerging needs. It also provides valuable feedback to refine and strengthen programmes, keeping them relevant and responsive.
Robust evidence strengthens advocacy for the humanities and social sciences, reinforcing their role in addressing global challenges and shaping policy. Through this, we uphold transparency, foster learning, and support the long-term sustainability of research initiatives.
Principles of monitoring and evaluation
The Monitoring and Evaluation Team seeks to deliver its work as efficiently as possible, minimising burden on British Academy colleagues and funding recipients while meeting external reporting requirements. Doing so requires the production of a sufficiently detailed evidence base with minimum data.
Our approach to doing so is informed by recognised best practice, including the UK Government Green Book and guidance published by the UK Evaluation Society, to ensure that monitoring, evaluation and learning activities are proportionate, rigorous and useful for decision-making.
Publishing Evaluations
The evaluation reports, executive summaries and case studies will be published by the M&E team on the Evaluation page of The British Academy website.
This follows HM Government’s commitment to transparency of publicly funded programmes. This best practice will be extended across the whole British Academy evaluation portfolio. The monitoring and evaluation team will collaborate with external contractors to ensure all necessary permissions are gained prior to publication, as part of the evaluation process.