In mid-June 2025, Budapest hosted a two-day conference titled “Shaping the Future” that brought together hundreds of researchers, policymakers, and evaluation practitioners from across Europe. This recap highlights the event’s key takeaways and insights.
Background
The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) implements various initiatives, known as COST Actions. One of these, running from October 2021 to October 2025, is PROFEEDBACK (Platform of the Policy Evaluation Community for Improved EU Policies and Better Acknowledgement). Taking a bottom-up, open approach, the Action brings together researchers and professionals from various disciplines to share methods and best practices. By assessing effective evaluation practices across the EU, PROFEEDBACK provides national and EU evaluation bodies with valuable insights.
Conference overview
The 9th conference, titled “Shaping the Future: Evaluating Programmes and Policies in Public Education and Youth Policy”, was hosted by the HÉTFA Research Institute (Budapest), the Grant Holder of PROFEEDBACK. It took place in Budapest, Hungary, on 18–19 June 2025. The conference aimed to reinforce Europe’s capacity for evaluating youth and education policies, encourage networking and promote evidence-sharing across the continent. As the final event of this four-year collaboration, the conference was designed to consolidate the lessons learned and strengthen the evaluator community.
Topics included youth mental health, youth work and services supporting inclusion, as well as programmes for those not in education, employment or training (NEETs). Other topics covered included school-to-work transitions, social innovation, and the evaluation of education policies such as programmes to prevent early school leaving.
Evaluation issues in the spotlight
The keynotes and plenary discussions emphasised that evaluation can serve as both a tool for accountability and a catalyst for better policies. Highlights from the keynotes included:
| Speaker | Institution | Key Message |
| Niall O’Higgins | ILO | Measuring the impact of youth employment interventions is essential to ensure programmes deliver real results for young people. |
| Rafael de Hoyos | World Bank | Evaluation should go beyond measurement and act as a catalyst for more effective youth and education policies. |
| Gabriele Tomei | University of Pisa | Mixed-methods and community-engaged evaluations can help to address educational disadvantage and support those who are struggling. |
| Andreas Schleicher | OECD | Comparative international data (e.g. PISA) provides valuable information for designing future education systems. |
In addition to these keynotes speakers, the conference featured interactive panels that bridged research and policy. In one high-level roundtable, EES President May Pettigrew joined representatives from the OECD, Euro found, the European Commission, and national ministries to discuss embedding evaluation into EU policymaking. They emphasised that continuous dialogue between evaluators and policymakers is needed to ensure evidence is clearly communicated and built into programme design and policy priorities. By exchanging country experiences, the panel reaffirmed that evaluators play a crucial role in making policy more responsive and effective.
Another plenary session, featuring Oto Potluka (EES), focused on education reforms and showed how evaluators and practitioners align evaluation with new policy initiatives. Panellists described efforts to integrate evaluation into ongoing reforms, such as evaluating interventions to reduce early school leaving or improve the transition from school to work. These discussions emphasised that evaluation is a practical tool for continuous improvement in the youth and education sectors, rather than merely an academic addition. Overall, the message was clear: rigorous, evidence-based evaluation is essential for developing and enhancing youth and education policies.
Building a community of practice
The parallel sessions covered all PROFEEDBACK themes relating to youth and education, demonstrating the close-knit community of evaluators across Europe. These sessions featured international, multidisciplinary research. One study, for example, compared collaborative youth services in Lithuania and Hungary, while another used cluster analysis to examine the EU-wide Youth Guarantee. Other sessions highlighted community-based and social innovation approaches to supporting young people. This variety ensured that discussions remained relevant to policymakers while also prompting new questions within the field.
One session presented three meta-analyses of Erasmus+ mobility projects, while another examined how certain university programmes affect student dropout rates. Presenters shared concrete examples, including a project that integrated digital and green skills into vocational education in order to prevent early school leaving. Speakers came from a variety of disciplines, reflecting PROFEEDBACK’s interdisciplinary approach.
Beyond the formal panels, additional research was presented during coffee break poster sessions. The posters covered topics such as the quality of life of young people, community education projects and the integration of refugees. These informal sessions provided an ideal networking opportunity for early-career evaluators, with researchers gathering around posters for one-to-one discussions on methods and findings. Many of the posters were authored by emerging evaluators, reflecting PROFEEDBACK’s commitment to nurturing the next generation.
Finally, the closing Capitalisation Workshop saw participants distil key lessons from the sessions and brainstorm joint projects, ensuring that the momentum of the conference would carry forward through new collaborative initiatives.
From insights to action: Future collaborations
The final workshop focused on building on the momentum of the conference to create future collaborations. Participants collaborated to develop ideas for sustaining the PROFEEDBACK network beyond the project’s official end date. They proposed new tools and partnerships, such as ProfeedBOOK, a compendium of research and case studies, and ProfeedCOURSE, training modules for evaluators, as well as podcasts and webinars to continue sharing insights. They also discussed launching collaborative projects and securing funding to continue exchanges initiated by PROFEEDBACK.
By outlining follow-up projects and pledging to stay in touch, the participants guaranteed that the event’s momentum would lead to tangible results. As one attendee noted, the conference seeded ‘multiple futures’ for collaboration, and the community left with a collective determination to apply its lessons across Europe.
Key takeaways for the evaluation community
Evidence-based commitment: Europe’s evaluation community has a strong commitment to evidence-based youth and education policy, as shown by speakers from the OECD and World Bank to EU agencies and national institutions.
Research–policy dialogue: Dialogue between researchers and policymakers is crucial. Sessions with EES leadership alongside EU officials underscored evaluators’ role in shaping policy priorities.
Breadth of evaluation: Discussions ranged from local interventions to cross-national programmes, showing that evaluation can address both hands-on issues and broader policy questions.
Networking and learning: Interactive elements like poster sessions generated new contacts and ideas. These exchanges were especially valuable for early-career researchers, offering detailed feedback and opportunities for collaboration beyond formal sessions.
Collaboration across borders: The event highlighted the importance of cross-country and cross-sector collaboration. Participants left with new contacts, fresh ideas, and a renewed sense of purpose — demonstrating how Europe’s evaluators can “shape the future” of youth and education policies.
Capacity building: By involving early-career evaluators and hosting interactive workshops, the conference reinforced PROFEEDBACK’s commitment to building long-term evaluation capacity and supporting the next generation of evaluators.
Future initiatives: Many participants are already planning joint projects, ensuring that the momentum from Budapest continues through tangible new initiatives.
Concluding reflections
For Europe’s evaluators, the Budapest conference was much more than just an academic gathering — it was a significant milestone for their community. It emphasised the vital role of evaluation in enhancing youth and education policies, and it reinforced the network of professionals committed to this cause. By collaborating across borders and disciplines, this community is enhancing programmes and policies today and laying the foundation for more inclusive, evidence-based decision-making in the future.
Although the PROFEEDBACK project has now concluded, the lessons learned in Budapest will continue to help evaluators connect, collaborate and innovate, ensuring that evaluation remains central to the development of effective youth and education policies across Europe. The key conclusion for members of the European Evaluation Society and the wider evaluation community was that rigorous evidence and collaborative approaches are indispensable for improving policies that affect the next generation.
Author information: Diana Kun works at the Hungarian Managing Authority in the Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development (National Development Centre), dealing with European Union projects under the Human Resources Operational Programme. The views expressed in this article are the personal view of the author and should not be taken to reflect the views of the Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development in Hungary.