Simpler, lighter, and faster EU regulation is one of the key enablers of Europe's competitiveness. That is why, both simplification and implementation are important Commission priorities, underpinned by specific structures and mechanisms. The Commission strives to simplify and lighten the administrative burden of EU regulations to ensure they are proportionate, stable, coherent, and technology neutral. In this context, the better regulation agenda helps the EU deliver evidence-based policies and laws that achieve their objectives in the most efficient way, while being tailormade to the needs of EU citizens, businesses, and civil society. The better regulation guidelines and toolbox provide concrete guidance to Commission services involved in preparing new initiatives and proposals, or managing and evaluating existing legislation.

The better regulation guidelines set out the principles that the European Commission follows when preparing new initiatives and proposals and when managing and evaluating existing legislation.

We mobilise people and resources to create, curate, make sense of and use knowledge to inform policymaking across Europe.

Helping researchers and policymakers better connect scientific knowledge and policymaking in the EU and worldwide.

16/04/2025 High-quality, multidisciplinary research is crucial for addressing societal challenges in today's complex global landscape. At the same time, researchers are facing more and more pressures, which may make contemplating the societal impact of their research more challenging. Recognising this, capacity-building activities need to evolve to support researchers who wish to participate in the science-policy interface.

07/03/2025 Systemic change is fundamentally rooted in human behaviour: while structural, political, economic, or technological factors may set the stage, it is the decisions and actions of individuals that ultimately drive change. Behind every challenge lies the potential for human behaviour to alter the course, provided the right behavioural pathways are identified and leveraged.

08/11/2024 The British Academy's recent report on Public Trust in Science-for-Policymaking explored the central role of science in public debates on policy. Three headlines stand out: the importance of policymakers articulating the role of science when they set out the framing of policy discussions, the strong public desire for nuance and transparency, and the clear advice against an 'information deficit' or 'follow-the-science' approach.

03/06/2024 What is more important when a researcher wants to convince policymakers: to communicate timely, or to communicate evidence that is certain? To answer this, we should take into account the perspective of policymakers. They often have to come to decisions under time pressure, even when the evidence they have at their disposal is very uncertain. Improving regulation requires the timely communication of relevant evidence, even though the evidence is not always certain.

Knowing consumer markets and consumer behaviour in the EU helps the European Commission make better policies.

Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) is a learning-based organisation. As such, it aims at systematically translating accumulated knowledge and expertise into operational reality. This constitutes a continuous exercise of applied knowledge, with the ultimate objective to reinforce the link between DG INTPA processes, the delivery of specific products and the achievement of intended results.

2024 is a major election year, when many political parties in democratic countries across the world will be promoting their visions for the future and progress.
These will include how to deal with challenges facing the world such as climate change, health, conflict and migration, and what is critical for all these issues is our collective ability to tell fact from fiction.

The PES Network has just released a new Paper, "Evidence-based services: latest trends", spotlighting the latest strategies, practices, tools and techniques in data-driven service design in European Public Employment Services. The paper is the output from the Working Group on ‘Evidence-based services’, hosted by the Danish PES (STAR) with 16 other PES participating.

EU Youth policy should be evidence-based and anchored in the real needs and situations of young people. That requires continuous research as well as outreach to young people and youth organisations.