10 Lessons for Building Government and Research Partnerships That Matter

Available on-demand

Bridge the gap between social service leadership and rigorous scientific research to move people out of poverty permanently. Join Notre Dame’s LEO and JPAL North America for a discussion on building high-impact partnerships. Learn how data-driven collaboration transforms lives and empowers government leaders to create lasting, equitable impact.

Featured Speakers:

Carrie Cihak, Public Sector Evidence Leader (formerly King County)
Louise Geraghty, Government Partnerships Lead, J-PAL North America
Patrick Turner, Assistant Professor of Economics, Notre Dame, LEO Researcher
Moderated by Vincent Quan, Acting Executive Director, J-PAL North America

Partner with LEO

The Evidence Matters series is sponsored on ThinkND by the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). Poverty is stubborn and requires the utmost collaboration of thought and action to drive change. People of goodwill must bring their unique strengths and positions together to solve this problem. At LEO, we believe knowledge has to be combined with action. But poverty can’t be solved by just one person, or even one sector. That’s why we bring together innovative social service provider partners, top-tier academics, philanthropists, policymakers, and others to tackle poverty.

Change is possible. And with your action, we can get one step closer to reducing poverty in our country, together.

Your job is to act. What will you do?

For more information, please visit LEO’s website.

The “Evidence Matters” webinar series serves as a critical forum for navigating the intersection of social science and public administration. This session highlights the synergy between the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at Notre Dame and JPAL North America at MIT. This partnership is vital for modern policymaking; while LEO matches top researchers with social service providers to isolate scalable interventions, JPAL North America leverages a global research network to inform domestic policy. Together, they address the staggering reality that while the U.S. spends $1 trillion annually to fight poverty, less than 1% of those funds support evidence-based programs.

The Mission of Evidence-Based Policy

Regina Gassiki (LEO) and Vincent Quan (JPAL) established the high stakes of poverty reduction, framing evidence-based policymaking as a “messy and complicated” reality. The mission extends beyond generating a topline study result; it is about building an ecosystem where academic research does not “sit on a shelf” but is integrated into the field. This requires a focus on the “nitty-gritty” process details—such as data-sharing logistics and technical assistance—that are instrumental in shifting long-term institutional culture.

The Government Official as Researcher

Carrie Chihawk argues for a fundamental redefinition of the government’s role. Rather than acting as passive clients, government staff must be viewed as core research team members. The “So What?” of this approach is pragmatic: government officials possess deep program expertise, understanding of organizational feasibility, and community context that external researchers lack. Patrick Turner illustrated this by referencing a partnership in Nashville where researchers relied entirely on local partners to design culturally relevant consent forms for a specific demographic of Black women. Without the government’s insight into what is feasible and how information is utilized internally, research projects rarely result in actionable policy.

Reframing Failure: The Gift of Null Results

The panel analyzed the inherent fear of “null” or negative outcomes, which Chihawk reframed as a “gift.” In a King County homelessness prevention case study, an initial evaluation of a case management program showed no impact. Instead of abandoning the program, the data revealed that case management had unintentionally become a “gatekeeper to financial assistance,” exacerbated by high staff turnover. By identifying these operational flaws, the team refined the program into an effective intervention. This demonstrates that “bad” data is a catalyst for deep learning and eventual program success, rather than a reason for program termination.

Operationalizing the Partnership

Successful partnerships must reconcile the “incentive alignment” gap. Patrick Turner noted that while academic researchers are driven by career progression and the publication of novel research in economics journals, governments require actionable, timely steps. Managing this tension involves leveraging the philanthropic funding models of JPAL and LEO, which cover research costs (including Research Assistants and data collection) so governments can focus on program costs. Furthermore, long-term rapport building is essential to navigate “twice as long as you think” timelines and complex intellectual property negotiations. Chihawk emphasized that a researcher’s independence regarding IP is actually in the government’s interest, as it ensures the credibility of the findings.

Alignment of Research Questions with Actionable Policy: Research should never be conducted in a vacuum. A government partner must identify a “key question” where the answer provides a clear, next step for decision-making. This alignment ensures that resources are focused on interventions with the highest potential to move people out of poverty permanently.
The Value of Diverse Teams and Lived Experience: Building a research team that includes individuals with deep community connections is vital to prevent “blind spots.” This diversity ensures that survey questions and program designs are culturally relevant, which increases the accuracy of data used to refine programs that move people out of poverty permanently.
The Necessity of Government-Led Community Engagement: Government partners must lead community relationships, as they hold the durable trust that external researchers lack. This includes providing childcare and food for participants and avoiding shortcuts like “AI translation,” which Carrie Chihawk warned often produces errors. Proper engagement ensures programs are designed by and for the community, a prerequisite to move people out of poverty permanently.
Managing the “Twice as Long as You Think” Timeline: High-quality research rarely aligns with legislative cycles. Acknowledging that data sharing and relationship building take significant time allows partners to set realistic expectations. By preventing the “political abandonment” of programs before they mature, leaders can protect interventions that will eventually move people out of poverty permanently.
Leveraging Philanthropic Funding Models (JPAL/LEO): Many research partnerships are made possible through philanthropic funding, which allows researchers to provide evaluation services at no cost to the government. This model removes traditional procurement barriers and aligns academic incentives with the public need for evidence-based strategies to move people out of poverty permanently.

“Think of null results as a gift. They are the most important results that we can have because the last thing that we want to do as a government or a service provider is be providing a service that isn’t working or even worse might be producing harm.” — Carrie Cihak, Former Evidence and Impact Officer, King County.
“The best, most innovative solutions are developed by people who are out in the field doing this important work. I’m not going to come up with the right program to solve a particular problem in a local community; that’s where we leverage the expertise and knowledge of the people who are working out in the field.” — Patrick Turner, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame.
“Evidence-based policymaking, even though the term sounds simple, is actually quite messy and quite complicated. This forum really is an opportunity for us to dig into all those nitty-gritty process details that we know are equally instrumental in getting valuable research into the field.” — Vincent Quan, Acting Executive Director, JPAL North America.
“We design our opportunities for governments to engage that really start with the government priorities as a starting point for designing a research project… governments are able to use that to further develop their research questions and the logistical plan for implementation.” — Louise Geraghty, Government Partnerships Lead, JPAL North America.
“You hold a ton of expertise that is really critical to any research project being successful… You wouldn’t be in your position in government if you didn’t really know how to work the organization to take information and turn it into action. So again, really think of yourself as a researcher.” — Carrie Chihawk, Former Evidence and Impact Officer, King County.