Produce a report providing a rapid evidence assessment of topic:
A critical appraisal of the contribution to delivering the three key industry mitigation options: fuel switching, energy efficiency and resource efficiency.
The stages of a rapid evidence assessment have been given below:
1. Devise a clear and focused question. The aim of a REA is to provide a short but systematic
assessment on a constrained topic. This requires a concise question that can be answered with
the time available. The research question must map onto the existing research. You must formulate
a question from the topics above. You cannot select a different question.
2. Provide a robust rationale for the question. Your introduction should include a coherent argument
on why the topic is important and why you have selected an appropriate question. Is your
assessment particularly useful for a specific policy initiative or assessment of previous schemes?
3. Describe the method employed. Explain how you undertook the selection of your literature covering
the criteria, searching and coding. You can select policy documents, case studies, quantitative
assessments and other papers. This is really up to you. It is important that you ensure that you are
always addressing the questions you have posed.
4. Provide your assessment. Try and find novel ways to document your results. Can you provide a
table comparing the different publications? Is a scoring system appropriate to define the relative
role of the different challenges and barriers? Could you produce a figure to summarise your
findings. It is also important to provide a nuanced and critical debate about your findings, not just
blindly present the results.
5. Consider the strength of the evidence base considering its consistency, generalizability and
applicability.
6. Recommendations. Can you provide any suggestions on where there are gaps in the evidence or
precise recommendations for policy makers?