In 2025, APO has proved once again why evidence matters. From shaping strategies in government to supporting frontline service delivery, our work is helping thousands of policymakers and practitioners turn research into real-world impact. In this blog, APO Director Brigid van Wanrooy shares APO’s achievements.
In 2025 APO cemented our essential role in the policy ecosystem. It’s easy to focus on the new and exciting work we have been doing but let me take a moment to share some of our ‘business as usual’ achievements.
policy and research resources added
to APO in 2025.
newsletters opened – proof policymakers
and practitioners rely on APO every week.
of these were contributed by our policy and research community to maximise impact.
visitors from Australia and New Zealand to our open access repository.
But these are just engagement numbers, right. How do we know we are supporting more evidence-informed policy and practice? Because in this year’s Subscriber Survey, 546 respondents told us how APO is supporting their work.
of subscriber said APO had improved the
quality of their work.
said their work would be less evidence-informed if they did not have access to APO.
Many told us in their own words APO is invaluable or vital to their policy work and an essential part of the policy and evidence infrastructure in Australia.
“APO directly influenced my work in compiling an evidence-base to inform policy and a new 3-year strategy.”
Public servant, NSW
“I have referenced APO content in business cases and submissions. This reinforces the case I am making as evidence-based which, these days, is very important.”
Public servant, ACT
“APO is an invaluable source for me to keep up to date with research and then put that thinking into design delivery of our programs.”
Public servant, SA
“This year I began a role in a completely new policy area and APO has helped me find resources as I’ve settled in. The breadth of available topics has helped me broaden my understanding of public policy and I’ve introduced it to many colleagues who are new to policy as a valuable learning tool.”
Public servant, NSW
“APO is essential to quality evidence-based policy in Australia.”
Public servant, WA
“I have worked across all three levels of government, and now I am in academia. At every turn, I have been supremely grateful for the invaluable resources that turn up each week in the APO Pulse emails. Thanks so much for the work you do behind the scenes compiling and disseminating all this. You will never be able to fully quantify the massive impacts of your work!”
Academic, VicPublic servant, NSW
And that’s not all. In this piece for the Mandarin, Peter Shergold highlights how evidence-informed policymaking and APO have a critical role to play in rebuilding trust in government and the public sector. McKinnon agreed and this year sponsored the launch of APOgov – a tool designed for public servants to make research evidence easier to find and apply to the work of government.
APO’s impact is also demonstrated through the knowledge brokerage services we provide to Australia’s policy ecosystem. In 2025 we broke new ground.
In collaboration with the Australian Centre for Evaluation we launched Australia’s first ever digital library of Australian Government Evaluations. So much investment goes into evaluation in the public service and for the first time you can now find the resulting outputs in one place. In the Library’s first month it was viewed (not including its contents) more than 3,200 times – demonstrating a latent demand for this type of resource (hello, state and territory governments!)
I think we surprised our clients, Swinburne Centre for Social Impact and the Department of Social Services, when we stood up a collection of disability employment resources and guides within a month and then the Centre for Inclusive Employment online hub just 4 months later. We’ve heard from service providers they are pleased to have a place they can go to support their practice and improve services for people with disability seeking work.
Each year, we celebrate the most impactful resources on APO via our annual Top Content. It’s an insight into the issues, debates and policy responses that have shaped the year – and makes an enlightening Summer reading list! You can view APO’s most downloaded resources in our Top Ten 2025 and if you’re interested in a particular policy area, explore the Top Ten most viewed and downloaded resources across key subject areas.
Unsurprisingly, all the reports in the Technology Top Ten are on the subject of artificial intelligence (AI), yet each are from a different perspective. The reports cover how to get the most out of AI (especially in public sector work), how to govern AI and make it safe, attitudes toward AI or the impact on workplaces and children.
The Government Top Ten is dominated by ‘how-to’ resources including guides to policymaking, place-based policies, evaluating and assessing policies, and ministerial priority setting. Congratulations to our partner, McKinnon for publishing 4 of the Top Ten reports listed here – totalling almost 5,000 views.
I noted a shift in this year’s Environment Top Ten towards a focus on the consequences and impacts of climate change including on mental health, heat vulnerability, cost-of-living and disaster resilience.
And then there are the recurring themes that have captivated APO’s Top Content for the last few years: housing in the Built Environment Top Ten, misinformation in the Communications Top Ten, family violence across both the Justice and Social Issues Top Tens and, thanks to our sponsored curated collections, disability in the Social Issues Top Ten.
None of this would be possible without you – our readers, contributors and partners. Together, we are building the evidence infrastructure Australia needs. Thank you for making APO not just a platform but a movement for better policy.
BLOG 