To this purpose, the Learning Lab’s experts will conduct free of charge counterfactual impact evaluation (CIE) studies including two types of evaluation approaches:
- ex post evaluations of completed policies or interventions, or
- randomised control trials (RCTs) for interventions that are still in the planning or implementation phase
Ex post evaluations will assess the effectiveness of policies or interventions that have already been completed to understand what worked, what didn't, and why. This type of evaluation is particularly useful for interventions that have been implemented on a large scale and can provide valuable insights for future policy decisions.
RCTs designs will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions that are still in the planning or implementation phase. This approach aims at testing the impact of an intervention in a controlled and randomised manner, while still allowing for adjustments to the policy or intervention before it is fully implemented.
This also allows assessing the impact of the intervention in real-time and making data-driven decisions about whether to adopt, modify, or abandon the intervention. In this case, the participating Member State will be responsible for covering the costs of implementing the intervention, including any necessary personnel, materials, and resources, as well as data collection and other expenses related to the trial.
The deadline for applications is 19 September 2025.
Objective
The main objective of the “Learning Lab for Evaluation (LL-4E) 2025” open call is to support EU countries in evaluating the impact and effectiveness of their education and training policies by using experimental or quasi-experimental methodologies. (For more information about CIEs, please see Annex II below).
LL-4E will select one to two interventions to be evaluated by the Learning Lab’s experts, using Counterfactual Impact Evaluation (CIE) methods.
The final evaluation will be published as a technical report and could potentially be submitted for publication to an international peer-reviewed research journal, if the involved EU country agrees with it.
Selection of applications
Relevant authorities in Member States are invited to apply and explain which education intervention they would like to see evaluated by the Learning Lab. Applications can propose either an ex post evaluation or a randomized control trial (RCT) approach. The intervention(s) will be eventually selected for evaluation based on the following two main criteria:
- Policy relevance and the design of the education intervention to be evaluated, and
- Data availability and quality (for ex post evaluations) or feasibility of implementing an RCT design
Concerning the policy relevance, applications related to any policy intervention that contributes to the main objectives of the Action Plan on Basic Skills will be granted a higher score.
Only if your application is selected, you will be invited to provide the Learning Lab with the data needed for carrying out a well-designed CIE of the education intervention in question. The Learning Lab’s experts will help to identify all the necessary data for the evaluation.
Please consider that the Learning Lab will require detailed information regarding the intervention along with datasets and their associated data documentation and explanation. In particular, the data provided need to include information on the affected units by the evaluated intervention as well as data on a potential comparison group.
Timeline
Phase 1. Application
(June 6, 2025 – September 19, 2025)
Submit your request by filling in this online form.
Phase 2. Assessment and selection of intervention
(September 20, 2025 – November 30, 2025)
Proposals will be ranked according to the selection criteria above exposed and based on the application form. A meeting with the applicants might be needed to clarify the application content prior to ranking the application. Applicants of short-listed proposals will be contacted to agree upon conditions on how to provide the Learning Lab with the data. In addition to this, they will have to provide the documents listed in the checklist in Annex I for Phase 2.
The selected projects will establish a collaboration agreement with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in the framework of the LL-4E initiative. (Activities conducted by the Learning Lab will be handled by DG JRC in the context of the collaboration between DG EAC and DG JRC.)
Phase 3. Evaluation and results
(December 1, 2025 – March 31, 2028)
The specific timeline for phase 3 will depend on the type of proposal submitted.
For ex-post evaluation of already finished interventions: The collaboration project should start after signature of agreements and provision of data. The indicative timetable includes the following activities:
- Kick-off online meetings, signature of data transfer agreement and data transfer (if needed) (December 2025 – April 2026)
- Carrying out the CIE (May 2026 – June 2027)
- Presentation of preliminary results (July 2027 – December 2027)
- Final results (March 2028)
For RCT: The RCT evaluation will involve a collaborative process between the Learning Lab and the selected intervention sites. The indicative timetable includes the following activities (timelines are tentative and will be adapted to the specific needs of the Member State and of the intervention to be implemented):
- Kick-off online meetings and agreement on trial design and protocol (December 2025 - June 2026)
- Randomisation and baseline data collection (done according to the policy timeline, e.g. if targets are schools, most likely this will be done in September 2026, with the new academic year.
- Implementation of the intervention in treatment sites and data collection (From September 2026)
- Interim analysis and presentation of preliminary results (January - March 2027)
- Continuation of data collection and evaluation (April - December 2027)
- Final analysis and presentation of results (January - March 2028)
During phase 3, the Learning Lab will work closely with the intervention sites to: Develop and refine the trial protocol; Conduct randomisation and baseline data collection; Provide technical assistance and support for intervention implementation; Collect and analyse data on outcomes and implementation processes; Present preliminary and final results to stakeholders.
Who can participate
The LL-4E initiative is open to national or regional governmental departments in charge of education and training policies in all EU countries. If selected, the relevant authority will be responsible for providing and preparing the datasets for evaluation in due course.
Eligible education interventions and data
Interventions eligible for evaluation can be from any education level (from early childhood education and training to adult learning). Interventions to be evaluated using ex-post evaluation methods should have already been implemented or planned to be implemented by the end of 2025.
Data used for the evaluation can originate from both administrative and survey data sources.
How the applicant institution should collaborate with the Learning Lab
Applicants to the LL-4E agree to collaborate with the Learning Lab in the following aspects:
- Availability to attend clarification online meetings during the assessment period (Phase 2) of the applications (September 19, 2025 – November 30, 2025) and afterwards if selected.
- Provision of information and relevant documentation about the intervention under evaluation and the policy context.
- Signature of a data transfer agreement under compliance with the data protection legislation (if needed).
- Transmission of microdata/provision of remote access to data about the programme implementation and relevant outcomes of participants
- Availability to regularly meet the evaluation team during Phase 3, to discuss doubts on the data, interpretation of results, etc.
For any additional information, please contact the Learning Lab team at JRC-CCME-LearningLab@ec.europa.eu.
Annex I: Checklist of required documents
The following table includes the documents required for each phase of the LL-4E initiative. Applicants can use the table as a checklist in order to verify compliance with all requirements.
| Phase | No. | Document | Specification and content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Filled online application form | Description of the education intervention indicating the institutions involved in the planning and implementation phases, the duration, the aims and the target groups. |
| 2 | 2.a | Data codebook | Detailed description of the datasets indicating the format and the list of variables with labels. In the case of survey data, the documentation needs to include a detailed description of the survey methodology. |
| 2 | 2.b | Data sources | Detailed description of the potential data sources available for the CIE evaluation. |
Annex II: What is CIE? And what is it for?
Counterfactual Impact Evaluations (CIEs) may provide good quality evidence of the net effects (impacts) of interventions, including education interventions. They only achieve this goal, however, if they are well planned and executed appropriately.
The main methodological distinction in CIEs is between evaluation designs that are experimental and those that are quasi-experimental. The experimental approach is commonly referred to as the ‘randomised control trial’ and sometimes also as ‘social experimentation’.
In an experimental approach, the individuals supported by education intervention would be selected randomly from a potential population of eligible participants to the intervention.
The random assignment assures that, on average, those exposed to the intervention (treatment group) and those who are not (control group which serves as a counterfactual for the treatment group) are similar. Thus, the difference in a specific outcome between the two groups can be attributed to the intervention.
Quasi-experimental methods, while they do not randomise the treatment assignment, they exploit existing circumstances that determine the treatment in a quasi-random manner or exploit statistical techniques to build a control group that acts as a counterfactual.
The difference between the treatment and the control group can be attributed to the intervention. These methods are difference-in-differences (DiD); regression discontinuity design (RDD); instrumental variables (IV) and propensity score matching (PSM).
The application of CIE methods requires the availability of data related to both units taking part in the intervention under analysis, defined as ‘treated’, and units not participating, defined as ‘untreated’ or ‘control’ units. Non-participants may include both eligible and non-eligible units.