Creating a globally competitive economy that works for everyone
Professor Ana Manzano’s research fellowship with Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy (DfE) used collaborative, participatory research to co-produce its Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Strategy – the first to be developed in any government department in Northern Ireland.
During the 18-month UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Fellowship, Professor Manzano worked with Department staff, policymakers, and external partners to co-create a tailored monitoring and evaluation strategy.
Professor Manzano’s expertise in complex policy and programme evaluation helped drive change in the Department’s evaluation of innovation policies, programmes and projects. She created a strong evidence base to understand the impact of innovative, inclusive and green growth initiatives and to support future decision-making.
The process not only strengthened the department’s capacity to embed robust evaluation across its policy and programme portfolio, but also demonstrated the value of genuine co-production.
— Professor Ana Manzano
Impact
- Real-world outcome: co-production of the first M&E Strategy developed by any Northern Ireland government department.
- Bridging academia and government: the fellowship highlighted the value of academic engagement with government in creating and improving policy strategy.
Key information
- Major funders: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
- Partners and collaborators: Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland Executive)
- Disciplines: economics, evaluation, strategy, social science, civic engagement
- Investigators: Professor Ana Manzano.
A three-stage approach to co-production
In the first phase of her fellowship, Professor Manzano worked with staff across the Department to co-produce the scope of the strategy, ensuring the work was feasible and meaningful.
She facilitated problem-statement workshops, where staff identified key challenges in the existing evaluation process and explored opportunities for improvement.
They identified four priority areas:
- timing of evaluation
- evaluation capability and knowledge
- use of lessons learned
- organisational culture.
In the second phase, Professor Manzano conducted several Theory of Change and vision statement workshops with the staff. These allowed them to dive deeper, understand the complexities, and establish priorities and deliverable objectives for the strategy.
In the final stage, Professor Manzano conducted an online consultation with over 100 participants, staff, academics, evaluation experts and external partners to review and contribute to the strategy. Their feedback informed the final version shared with DfE leadership.
Lasting impact
The fellowship enabled Professor Manzano to build strong, lasting relationships with the DfE and gain deeper insight into how evaluation operates in government – not just in theory, but in practice too.
Her work highlights the value of producing a tangible, real-world outcome that will help shape future research.
Professor Manzano reflected: “Working in partnership with the Department for the Economy to co-produce its first ever Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy has been a professionally significant and rewarding experience.
“The process not only strengthened the department’s capacity to embed robust evaluation across its policy and programme portfolio, but also demonstrated the value of genuine co-production, where academic insight and policy expertise are brought together to create tools that are both methodologically rigorous and operationally practical.
“Contributing to a system-wide shift toward more transparent, learning-oriented governance has been a privilege and a reminder of the important role universities can play in shaping public outcomes.”
About Professor Ana Manzano
Professor Ana Manzano is a professor of Public Policy Evaluation and expert in theory-driven evaluation of complex public policy issues. She specialises in the relationship between research methods, evidence and policy making.
Her past research has covered many health and social policy areas such as evaluations of healthcare utilisation, financial incentives and user decision-making programmes and policies.
She is the co-editor-in-chief of the journal Evaluation and Program Planning.