Transforming Long-Term Care through Evidence-Informed Innovation: Learning from Three European Centres of Excellence

Using evidence to improve public services is a key aspiration, but also a significant challenge internationally, with a number of key national investments in breaking down traditional barriers between research, policy and practice. This paper brings together the experiences of three European centres of excellence working in social and health care: Vilans (the national centre of expertise for long-term care in the Netherlands); Nka (the Swedish national centre of excellence in the field of unpaid carers); and IMPACT (the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care). The paper describes the background, structure and approach of each centre, and draws out key lessons from each. It then explores potential differences as well as key similarities. In particular, each centre seeks to move beyond more traditional, top-down forms of dissemination through their commitment to bridging policy, practice and research; valuing different voices and different types of evidence; co-production and lived experience and being a more active participant in policy debates and the change process.