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Learning Agenda, Evidence Plans & Annual Evaluation Plans
Learning agendas, annual evaluation plans, and evidence plans are the forward-looking planning documents federal agencies produce under Title I of the Evidence Act. Together they answer several questions, including: what an agency has decided it needs to learn to support its mission, the data and methods it intends to use to build evidence for learning, and the challenges it may face in doing so.
The Evidence Act requires agencies to publish a learning agenda and evaluation plan on the same cycles as its strategic plan and performance plan, respectively. However, the format of these documents has changed since the first years of implementation. From fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2026, agencies published learning agendas and annual evaluation plans as separate documents on separate cycles. Beginning with the FY2027 planning cycle, White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-11 (2025), Section 290 directs agencies to incorporate the required elements of both into a single “evidence plan,” updated annually rather than every four years.
The Center for Evidence Capacity team archives each type of planning document as agencies originally published it. The three tables below are organized by format: learning agendas, annual evaluation plans (FY2022–FY2026), and evidence plans (FY2027 forward). Each table can be sorted, grouped, filtered, printed, and downloaded as a .csv file for research use. Contact us at evidencehub@datafoundation.org if you encounter errors, out-of-date information, or have questions.
Learning agendas, also known as evidence-building plans, are systematic, multi-year roadmaps for identifying and addressing the priority questions relevant to agencies' programs, policies, and regulations. Required by the Evidence Act (5 U.S.C. § 312(a)) and aligned with strategic planning cycles, learning agendas establish iterative, flexible, transparent, and tailored plans to develop evidence to answer important short- and long-term strategic questions (how the agency accomplishes its core mission) and operational questions (about internal processes, human resources, and management systems). Through FY2026, agencies published these as standalone four-year documents; beginning with FY2027, the learning agenda is a component of the annual evidence plan.
As OMB memo M-19-23 explains, learning agendas are "the driving force for evidence-building activities" that guide agencies in using data to improve their operational and programmatic outcomes rather than simply collecting information for compliance. Learning agendas support proactive evidence-building by systematically identifying priority questions through stakeholder consultation, including the public, researchers, and program beneficiaries. Learning agendas also identify the activities, data, methods, timing, and anticipated challenges for answering them. These plans make transparent what agencies intend to learn, creating accountability for using evidence and opportunities for external researchers to contribute. For practitioners and policymakers, learning agendas signal agency priorities, guide resource allocation for data and evaluation activities, and ensure that evidence-building supports strategic decision-making.
Annual evaluation plans are agency documents describing the "significant" evaluation activities planned for the upcoming federal fiscal year, including the key questions each evaluation will address, the methods to be used, and how findings will be disseminated and used for decision-making. While learning agendas span four years and may include all types of evidence-building activities, annual evaluation plans focus specifically on evaluation projects, which are systematic assessments of programs, policies, or processes that generate evidence about effectiveness, efficiency, and outcomes.
Annual evaluation plans operationalize learning agenda priorities into evaluation projects with specific timelines. These documents enable stakeholders — Congress, researchers, program beneficiaries, and the public — to understand what agencies plan to study and how, facilitating collaboration and preventing duplication. As OMB memo M-21-27 states, producing evaluation plans is important to developing "processes and practices that establish habitual and routine reliance on evidence across agency functions and demand new or better evidence when it is needed." The evidence produced by the activities identified in annual evaluation plans is expected to inform future cycles of learning agendas and subsequent evaluation plans.
Annual evaluation plans were published in this format through FY2026. The FY2027 planning cycle replaced the standalone annual evaluation plan with the evidence plan described below.
Evidence plans consolidate the learning agenda and the annual evaluation plan into a single document produced on an annual cycle. Under OMB Circular A-11 (2025), Section 290, agencies incorporate the required elements of both documents into one evidence plan beginning with the FY2027 planning cycle, and update it each year rather than on the four-year strategic planning cycle.
The FY2027 evidence plan identifies three to five priority questions. For each question, the agency documents the topics addressed; how the question aligns to an administration or agency leadership priority; and provides a description including:
Activities that meet the Evidence Act definition of an evaluation carry additional requirements: the specific questions the evaluation will address and a description of information the agency will collect. Agencies must also document anticipated challenges to building or using the evidence.
The combined evidence plan is published as a standalone component of the agency strategic plan and at the same time as the President's Budget. Agencies are directed to submit proposed priority questions to OMB in September of each year with their budget requests, submit draft plans for review in December and January of the following year, and publish their final plans in February alongside the next federal fiscal year’s budget. Public consultation on agencies’ evidence plans remains a statutory requirement, but only when agencies develop the learning agenda component for the first time in a presidential term.
