Monday 15th June 2026, 13:00 – 14:00 BST
Presenter: Dr Gloria Crabolu – Senior Lecturer in Systems Thinking and Sustainability, University of Exeter Business School
Webinar Overview:
Test and Learn is a way of working that has been recently formally adopted by the UK government, integrating structured testing, feedback and adaptation throughout the policy cycle and enabling iterative refinement of interventions before large-scale evaluation and rollout. Its formal incorporation into the Magenta Book (the UK Government’s central guidance on evaluation) marks a significant shift in how government is expected to design, test and evaluate policy, moving from retrospective assessment towards continuous, evidence-informed learning.
This webinar presents the newly published Test and Learn Annex to the Magenta Book, co-authored by Dr Gloria Crabolu during a British Academy Fellowship secondment at the Cabinet Office Evaluation Task Force. Drawing on evidence from practice across government, the webinar introduces the four-stage framework (Explore, Co-design, Test and Grow), illustrating each stage with case studies drawn from across government.
Presenter Biography:
Dr Gloria Crabolu is a Senior Lecturer in Systems Thinking and Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School. Her interdisciplinary work explores how governments and organisations can respond more effectively to complex sustainability challenges using systems thinking, complexity-aware approaches and future oriented methods. She has extensive experience evaluating policy and programme interventions, designing transition strategies, and applying futures thinking to reframe organisational and policy operating models under uncertainty. Her expertise has informed organisations including the UK Cabinet Office, DESNZ, the European Commission, OECD and UN Tourism, as well as regional governments. More recently, she completed a British Academy Innovation Fellowship with the Evaluation Task Force at the Cabinet Office, where she contributed to national evaluation guidance through the update of the Magenta book and co-authored the Test and Learn Annex.
How to Join:
This talk will take place via a Zoom Webinar – please click here to register for a place.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.