On June 18–19, 2025, we had the pleasure of welcoming over 100 researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and evaluation professionals from across Europe to Budapest for the final conference of the PROFEEDBACK COST Action organized by HÉTFA Research Institute.
Thank you to everyone who joined us — your presence, insights, and dedication made this event a meaningful and energising conclusion to our four-year collaboration.
Held under the theme “Shaping the Future: Evaluating Programs and Policies in Public Education and Youth Development,”
the conference reaffirmed a key message: Better policies begin with better evaluations.
Highlights from Budapest
- Opening remarks by
- Gábor Balás, HÉTFA Research Institute, Chair of the PROFEEDBACK Action
- Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development of Hungary
- Keynote speeches from:
- Niall O’Higgins (ILO) – on youth employment impact and multi-barrier approaches
- Dr. Rafael de Hoyos (World Bank) – on evaluation as a driver of transformation
- Prof. Gabriele Tomei (University of Pisa) – on addressing educational poverty through reflexive evaluation
- Andreas Schleicher (OECD) – on learning futures and the cost of unevaluated policy
- Thematic roundtables explored key topics in education and youth policy: mental health, NEET inclusion, and school-to-work transitions
- A policy roundtable brought together representatives from OECD, Eurofound, the European Commission, EES, and national ministries to reflect on embedding evaluation into EU policymaking
- In the Capitalisation Workshop, participants co-created ideas for sustaining the PROFEEDBACK network beyond the official project end, with tools like ProfeedBOOK, ProfeedCOURSE, podcasts, and new partnerships on the horizon
- A Poster Session with over 20 contributors highlighted practical innovations and encouraged peer exchange
All materials from the event will soon be available online!
Already available: Slides and keynote videos, Poster gallery
Coming soon:
- Podcasts from the roundtable discussions
- Full research papers (ProfeedBOOK)
- Highlight and interview videos
- Photo gallery capturing the spirit of the event