Louise is the Director of the Digital Societies programme at ODI. Originally an agricultural economist, she has had a varied career as a researcher, research manager, policy advisor and management consultant in the UK and in other countries. Louise specialises in the area of evidence-informed policymaking and knowledge brokering. She has considerable experience of running research programmes and of working with researchers to improve the impact of their research on policy and practice and analysing the political economy of knowledge-to-policy processes. She has published extensively in the area of evidence-based policymaking including two multi-author books, journal articles, reports, guidance notes, briefing papers and blogs. Louise spent six years as an associate editor of the international journal Evidence and Policy.