Our purpose
The Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE) helps centre evaluation evidence in policy design and decision‑making. We focus on improving the volume, quality and use of evaluation evidence. This gives the Australian Government confidence its programs and policies are:
- delivering better outcomes
- improving the lives of Australians
- getting value for money.
We aim to embed good evaluation principles and practices across government. An evaluative culture supports continuous learning about what works, why and for whom.
Our work
We help integrate high‑quality evaluation into all aspects of program and policy development. We support the Australian Public Service (APS) to rigorously assess complex policy issues.
We work with departments and agencies across the APS and beyond to:
- promote the Commonwealth Evaluation Policy
- make sure evaluation activities follow the Commonwealth evaluation principles
- embed evaluation planning and using evaluation evidence in budget and Cabinet decision‑making processes
- give technical support to back high‑quality impact evaluations
- run impact evaluations to improve the quality of evaluation evidence
- oversee efforts to improve evaluation capability.
How we help
We work closely with Commonwealth evaluation units. We can help at any stage of the policy process to consider:
- risk‑based evaluation, performance monitoring and implementation issues
- whether you need a formal evaluation in your stakeholder consultation
- how evaluation can complement or improve routine performance monitoring.
Impact evaluations help you understand how well a program or policy is working. If you want to run an evaluation, we can help you:
- decide whether a randomised trial or alternative method is workable and appropriate
- design, plan and pre‑register your evaluation
- apply a randomisation
- analyse and interpret your findings.
To support your evaluations, we offer a range of resources and networking opportunities.
Our strategy
Read about the ACE’s vision, mission and service offering in our strategy.
Our team
Find more information about the ACE’s leadership and team members.