About the peer learning groups

The peer learning groups provide a platform for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners across different sectors to share experiences, lessons learned and best practices across outcome-based approaches. The groups are open to veterans of outcome-based approaches as well as people with less experience within government, provider organisations, academia and other sectors. Each group has its own identity, in terms of group membership and means of convening sessions. Please find brief descriptions of each group below.

To join a peer learning group or if you have a general enquiry about the groups please contact golab@bsg.ox.ac.uk. Descriptions of each group along with contact details for the group's coordinator can be found below.

Engaging with Evidence is a series of interactive online convenings hosted by the GO Lab and designed to encourage a greater understanding of the latest evidence on the use of cross-sector partnerships focused on outcomes. This webinar series offer an open platform for policymakers, practitioners and researchers around the world to engage with key findings from the latest research and evaluation work in the field.

All sessions are free to attend and open to all, but will be of particular interest to policymakers and other practitioners interested in developing sustainable, system-wide outcomes-based approaches.  

Explore the Engaging with Evidence page to read more about our sessions and book your place.

The Formal-relational Government Contracting Roundtable (ForeGRound) is an international group of academics, policymakers and practitioners interested in understanding the potential and challenges to a formal relational contracting approach in the public sector.

Formal-relational contracting is an emerging approach to governing complex partnerships. It leverages shared goals and principles, alongside governance procedures, to ensure that the formal contract complements the informal relationships between parties, allowing them to work together productively and adapt amidst uncertainty.

The Government Outcomes Lab acts as the secretariat for ForeGRound. We organised the inaugural session in Oxford in September 2023, and provide ongoing support to communication and future meetings of the group.

If you would like to find out more about the group, including how you can join future sessions, please contact Michael Gibson at michael.gibson@bsg.ox.ac.uk.

The Oxford Procurement of Government Outcomes Club (Oxford POGO Club) is a knowledge sharing initiative that is open to anyone interested in capacity building in public procurement and in collaboration to improve social outcomes. We host monthly calls, maintain a maillist, and share other resources. Participants come from many different disciplines, sectors, and countries. Our chair is Anne Davies, Professor of Law and Public Policy.     

Interested? Join the mailing list by emailing Ruairi Macdonald or Jonathan Davies. Find us on LinkedIn here.

The Research Forum on Outcomes in Cross-Sector Collaboration is a gathering of researchers whose work engages with, or relates to, outcomes-based approaches to public service provision. Every two months, the Forum hosts a guest speaker to present an aspect of their research or talk through a particular issue that is influencing their work. The research forum is co-hosted by the Government Outcomes Lab, University of Oxford, and The Center for Research on Public-Private Collaboration, Roskilde University.

Research Forum meetings are one hour and 15 minutes long, and are held online on the last Friday of every other month. They are free to attend, and anyone who is interested is welcome to join. The target audience is principally researchers, however, and these sessions will particularly appeal to members of academic institutions, consultancies, and/or think tanks, whose work relates to the above outlined themes.

If you are interested in presenting at the Forum please contact Eleanor Carter, Research Director at the Government Outcomes Lab, or Ole Helby Petersen, Director of The Center for Research on Public-Private Collaboration, Roskilde University.