Decision-makers in government are no strangers to crises and time pressure. Fast-paced policy-making experiences are getting more frequent as the news cycle speeds up, public expectations for timely responses increase, and the realities of climate, economic and societal change mean we are seeing more natural and man-made disasters that require an urgent response.

Many lessons were learned through the experience of rapid evidence generation and utilisation during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is now scope to build on this emerging knowledge and consider how rapid evidence generation and utilisation applies to policy development in other fast-paced contexts.

This article explores the supply and demand side factors, and how we might improve the quality and take up of evidence when decision-makers are working at speed.