Dione Hills reports back on some of the latest news from the Centre for Complexity in Evaluation Across the Nexus (CECAN).

Work at the new ESRC funded centre for complexity in evaluation across the nexus (CECAN) is now well underway, with a busy schedule of seminars, workshops and fellowships and a series of policy and practice notes on various methodological developments related to how best to address complexity in undertaking evaluation in policies related to nexus problem domains: where biofuel production or climate change, where food, energy, water and environmental issues intersect. Information on all these activities are available via the news section of the CECAN website. One recent seminar that was particularly well received was one by Trish Greenwood on Complexity, Power and Evidence in the UK Healthcare Sector: A Case Study of E-Health Research, which can be watched here.

As a partner, the Tavistock Institute has taken an active role in many of the centre’s  activities, and I am currently helping to co-design an evaluation of the Centre’s capacity building activities via its fellowship scheme. CECAN co-funded my attendance at the European Evaluation Society conference in Maastricht in October, to listen out for how evaluators are thinking about complexity across Europe (and beyond) and how CECAN can best contribute to discussions in this area. (If you want to read more on this do visit my blog post).

We will also shortly be working with two other CECAN partners on a new evaluation project in the energy sector with exciting opportunities to explore methodological developments: more information on this shortly.

For those of you interested in cutting edge thinking about evaluation – or with an interest in NEXUS related issues – I hope to see you at one or more of the CECAN activities planned for 2017. Or contact me if you would like to hear more about CECAN.

Dione Hills
Principal Researcher / Consultant at Tavistock Institute and
CECAN Fellow