Evidence ecosystem: mapping evidence intermediaries in health and oral health in Brazil

• Grant number: 24/17217-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Dentistry - Social and Preventive Dentistry
• Principal Investigator: Fernanda Campos de Almeida Carrer
• Grantee: Fernanda Campos de Almeida Carrer
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia (FO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Antônio Carlos Frias ; Daniela Prócida Raggio ; Laura dos Santos Boeira ; Luciane Cruz Lopes ; Maria Ercilia de Araujo ; Mariana Minatel Braga Fraga

Abstract

Introduction: The Center for Evidence and Economic Analysis of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of São Paulo (FOUSP) is part of the Brazilian Coalition for Evidence, which was created in 2021 and brings together around 45 civil society organizations, university groups and public management around sharing and promoting the use of evidence in decision-making in public policies and social interventions. Our mission is directly linked to SDG 16, through target 16.7 - "Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels". The Coalition is a diverse community sharing knowledge, practices, providing support and opportunities. Despite attempts to bring these institutions together, there are still many doubts about who makes up these institutions, how they work, how they interact with interested parties, what products they develop, among others, which does not allow us to delimitate the Brazilian Policy Ecosystem Informed by Evidence, with information about its strengths and weaknesses. Objectives: Mapping institutions that apply the tools and theoretical models of evidence-informed public policies (EIP) in Brazil, in order to understand and delimitation the Brazilian evidence ecosystem, with a special focus on institutions dedicated to health and with and if these institutions are working on topics related to oral health. Furthermore, the aim is to make useful information and products developed by the Brazilian evidence ecosystem available to society and interested parties in open access databases, in line with the "Open Science" movement. Methods: This study will be divided into four phases: 1. Identify Brazilian institutions that are dedicated to PIE/Health; 2. Identify essential information to establish a situational diagnosis of the ecosystem of public policies informed by evidence in health policies in Brazil seeking to understand how oral health has been an agenda in these institutions; 3. Identify and categorize the technical and scientific production of the institutions mapped in previous phases; 4. Index the products in open access databases. It's expected that with the findings and products developed in this study, the Brazilian evidence ecosystem can contribute to promote the use of evidence in policies, tracing the Brazilian evidence ecosystem, and thereby enhancing its strength. This project is unprecedented, and its results have the potential to define and encourage the consolidation and strengthening of the integrated evidence ecosystem in Brazil giving visibility to the general aspects of the PIE ecosystem in health in Brazil and particularizing oral health and how to increase the space of this topic in this rapidly expanding field. (AU)