Policy Brief: Needs-Based Evidence Mapping for EdTech

A practical approach for interpreting EdTech evidence across policy, practice and innovation contexts.

This policy brief introduces Needs-Based Evidence Mapping as a translation device to understand what evidence is needed for whom.

By organising evidence into five domains, the mapping provides a shared conceptual language that offers a clearer way of understanding how different forms of evidence, and the data underlying this evidence, support different decisions across the EdTech ecosystem.

The aim of this document is to show how this practical framework can help partners to move from a reliance on ‘proof of impact’ toward a culture of ‘proof of trust’: evidence that is credible, context-rich, explainable, and socially responsible, aligned with SDG 4.

This shift does not require abandoning rigour or replacing existing evaluation frameworks. Instead, it requires a shared way of interpreting what different forms of evidence are for, whom they serve, and what they can, and cannot, reasonably claim.

The approach is described in greater detail in the report funded by the Jacobs Foundation: Lindroos Cermakova, A., Havinga, B. & Clary, A. (2026). Needs-based EdTech Evidence Map. European EdTech Alliance. Bielefeld. Germany