Supporting policy with scientific evidence

This user manual contains content for three different audiences. 

What you can see depends on who you are:

• the Public user manual is available to everyone from the 'Help' link near the top of every page on Knowledge4Policy. It includes two major sections: 
  • "Basic" - a basic introduction to K4P
  • "Community" - the information required to become a K4P Member
• the Members user manual is available to Members of one of K4P's knowledge communities, and is available via their user menu and their "login dropdown". It contains the content of the Public "Community" section (above), and much more
• the Internal user manualis available only to K4P's Editors, Online Community Managers and Contributors via their Knowledge Service management interface. 

The user manual page you are reading now is the only user manual page present in all three.

Moreover, help content also appears where it is most useful - in each content creation form, Members, Editors and Contributors will find a "Help" tab containing links to relevant user manual pages:

Please see the About Knowledge4Policy page. 

Knowledge4Policy combines a powerful search engine with a sophisticated taxonomy. But it's still easy to use.

Platform Search: search all knowledge 

To search the entire Knowledge4Policy database, simply go to the Home Page and enter your search term(s) into the "Search the entire KnowledgeBase" form. Please note:

• you can preselect one specific knowledge type before hitting the Search button
• the search form in the site's header searches the entirety of the EU Commission

Clicking Search takes you to the search results, which you can then refine using the filters on the left:

• Knowledge Service: each piece of Knowledge is relevant to one or more Knowledge Services. Selecting a Knowledge Service filters your search results to knowledge relevant to that Knowledge Service.
• Knowledge type: multiple selections possible, unless you preselected a knowledge type on the Home Page
• Project/Activity: any piece of Knowledge can be linked to the Project/Activity it resulted from. Selecting a Project/Activity filters your search results to knowledge resulting from that Project/Activity. The same knowledge is also displayed on the Project/Activity's own profile.
• Organisation: any piece of Knowledge can be linked to the Organisation it was published by. Selecting a Organisation filters your search results to knowledge published by that Organisation. The same knowledge is also displayed on the Organisation own profile.
• Geographic coverage: some knowledge is specifically relevant to a geographical area
• Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET): each term in the DET describes an EU policy area. Start typing to select a term relevant to your interests. Multiple selections possible.

Finally, some knowledge types come with additional filters: if you preselected "Events" on the Home Page before hitting Search, for example, you will see a date filter ("Timing"), while those searching for "Publications" will see a "Publication type" filter.

Search a Knowledge Service: higher focus and granularity

You can also search from a Knowledge Service's landing page (see Knowledge Service A-Z), in which case you are searching less knowledge with greater granularity as you:

• are only searching knowledge relevant to that Knowledge Service
• may access additional filters specific to that Knowledge Service.

There are two types of filter specific to a Knowledge Service:

• Knowledge Service Topics: many Knowledge Services maintain Topics, which both bring together and synthesise knowledge for policymakers in a subdomain of the Knowledge Service's area of interest, and Tools, which do essentially the same thing for policymaker tools, which can be applied to many policy areas. 
• Local taxonomies: these provide greater granularity than the Digital EUROPA Thesaurus, but are specific to the Knowledge Service's area.

Right: when searching the Migration and Demograpohy Knowledge Service, users can filter by both Topics and two local taxonomies.

At the bottom of every page in K4P you’ll find a simple Yes/No question: “Was this page useful?”, while each page’s footer features a “Give us feedback” link.

Feedback concerning a specific page.

• If there is a problem with the page, you can answer the “Was this page useful?” question with a “No” and then fill out the feedback form to tell us why and how it could be improved.
• Alternatively, just click on the “Give us feedback” link in the footer to open the same feedback form.

Feedback or question concerning Knowledge4Policy as a whole.

• Use this feedback form.

In all cases:  

• the team responsible for that page will get your feedback;
• you can opt to provide your email address so they can get in touch.
• to reduce spam, we have had to limit the use of the feedback form: you can only use one feedback form once every period.

K4P hosts many enewsletters, each managed by a different knowledge service. 

Currently, you can subscribe to them by:

• going to the Knowledge Service’s landing page and clicking on the “Subscribe to our newsletter” link (if there is no such link, that knowledge service doesn’t publish an enewsletter);
• providing your email address*.

You will be able to (un)subscribe from any enewsletter from any edition.

(*) Note: In the future, you’ll also be able to manage all your subscriptions via a one stop shop inside your user menu, as long as you use the same email address for your newsletters as your K4P account. See FAQ: What is a K4P account, how do I create one and how do I use it?

Please see our privacy policy.

Please see our accessibility statement.

Knowledge4Policy is built using the Drupal content management system, specifically a Drupal platform known as "Open EUROPA", coupled to the "Europa Component Library" design language.

Both are maintained by the EU Commission's IT department (DIGIT), and are open source, as is the K4P-specific code. It is therefore theoretically possible to set up your own website, although both DIGIT's and K4P's code and design will require substantial adaptation.

Before deciding whether that is worth the effort, you might want to better understand the theory underpinning the website's architecture. Some good places to start can be found in Building knowledge for policy. 

The K4P team is interested in exchanging audience research, ideas and insights on how best to design science4policy websites, so if you would like to join the conversation please take this short survey.

To learn more, please join the Evidence-informed policymaking knowledge service, and contact Mathew Lowry using K4P's Contact Me feature.

It is not possible for any one team to organise the world’s scientific knowledge in a domain and synthesise it for policymakers. 

In 2021 we therefore began working on the first of a series of community features to allow users to:

• contribute scientific knowledge;
• comment on the knowledge they find here;
• stay up to date via subscribing to newsletters and following conversations;
• ask questions to scientific experts;
• collaborate on evidence-informed policymaking.

The following features are currently available:

• Create a K4P account – see FAQ: What is a K4P account and how do I create one?
• Create and manage your personal profile (required before you can contribute anything to Knowledge4Policy) – see FAQ: What is my personal profile and how do I create and manage mine?
• Contact me: allows members to message each other without sharing their email address, as long as both users have opted in (see FAQ: What is ‘Contact me’ and how does it work? in the Members user manual)
• Ask a scientist: submit a (private) question to an EC community manager (see FAQ: What is ‘Ask a scientist’, and how does it work? in the Members user manual)
• Contribute knowledge to a knowledge service
• Comment on blog posts and other commentable content 
• Follow the resulting conversations
• Subscribe to newsletters.

More details on the above features are provided via the Members' user manual.  

Future developments will include:

• (un)Subscribe to all K4P newsletters from a one stop shop;
• Create and manage profiles of your organisation and/or projects;
• Join closed working groups to collaborate with other members in a private space.

There is one K4P community: each member of Knowledge4Policy has one K4P account and one K4P personal profile (see FAQ: What is my personal profile and how do I create and manage mine?). All personal profiles appear in the All members gallery in the top K4P menu.

On the other hand, we often refer to knowledge service communities. Each of them:

• is managed by a knowledge service (although many knowledge services currently do not have a knowledge community);
• brings together a subset of the K4P community interested in that knowledge service’s specific domain.

As a K4P member you can apply to join one, several or all knowledge service communities. When your application is approved by the knowledge service you:

• appear in their members gallery;
• can submit knowledge to the knowledge service;
• can contact other members of the K4P community via the (see FAQ: What is ‘Contact me’ and how does it work?

Each Knowledge Service on K4P with a knowledge community has one or more community managers.

They are scientists, working in multidisciplinary teams within the EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

In addition to their scientific work, they are responsible for managing their knowledge service’s presence on K4P.

What is it? A K4P account allows you to login to K4P to access its interactive features, ranging from ‘Ask a scientist’ through to joining Working Groups (see FAQ: What is the K4P Community).

How do I create my K4P account? Like all accounts on the European Commission’s websites, K4P accounts use the EU Login authentication system. To create a K4P account is simple.

1. Click “Login” icon in the top of the page (next to the EC logo) or on any “Login/Register” button available wherever an interactive service is proposed, and provide your consent. They all send you to the EU Login page.
2. Login if you have an EU Login account. If not, click “Create an account” and follow the instructions.

Now that I have an account, how do I log in?

1. Login using the “Login” link at the top of the page (next to the EC logo) or from any “Login/Register” button, as above.
2. Once logged in, you are automatically returned to the page you started. The login icon at the top of the page now indicates that you are logged in and gives you direct access to key parts of your K4P user menu (see FAQ: What is my user menu?), as well as a 'log out' link.

Your user menu is where you manage your profile, knowledge and interactions on Knowledge4Policy.

To access your user menu, login (see FAQ: What is a K4P account and how do I create one?). The Login link now gives you a dropdown, pointing to several key pages in your user menu, which currently contains:

• Stay informed: the user menu home page provides a feed of all activity on the site relevant to you:
  • My notifications
  • My messages
  • Manage your notifications, where you can currently set your email notification frequency on or off.
• My profile:
  • Edit/View profile, where you create and edit your personal profile (see FAQ: What is my personal profile?)
  • My memberships, where you can view and manage your membership of knowledge service communities and (later) closed working groups.
• My knowledge: where you can submit knowledge to K4P, view the knowledge you have already submitted, etc.

More community features are under development, so the above pages will evolve as new features arrive.

What is it?  

In the interests of transparency, a public personal profile is required before you can contribute to Knowledge4Policy, so all K4P users know who is contributing each piece of knowledge. The more detail you provide about yourself, the more credible your contributions.

How do I create and submit my personal profile?

Login, navigate to your user menu (see FAQ: What is my user menu?) and click “My profile”.  

Fill in the form. Note that:

• you will have already agreed to the privacy policy and terms and conditions when logging in;
• you can save your form in draft format and return to it later
• your name and email are provided by EU Login and cannot be changed
• two fields are mandatory:
  • "At a Glance"
  • choose at least one knowledge service
• the ‘Contact me’ feature is described in  FAQ: What is ‘Contact me’ and how does it work?

Once you have submitted your personal profile, the community manager(s) of the knowledge service(s) you included will check your profile.  

What happens when my personal profile is approved?

You can submit your profile to multiple knowledge services at once. Alternatively, you can apply to one and then apply to other knowledge services later by adding them to your profile.  

The first time any knowledge service community manager approves your profile, your personal profile’s status becomes ‘public’. It is published and now appears in the global K4P members gallery. 

You can use ‘Ask a scientist’ and ‘Contact me’, and as you are now a member of that knowledge service:  

• your profile also appears in the knowledge service’s "Our members" gallery;  
• a link to the knowledge service appears in your profile;
• you will be able to submit knowledge to that knowledge service, and comment on blog posts;
• you will be use other interactive features when those features become available.

The second and subsequent times a different knowledge service’s community manager approves your public profile, you join that knowledge service as well. If a knowledge service’s manager does not approve your (already public) profile, your profile remains public, but you simply do not join that knowledge service.