In our first issue, we are focusing on evidence-informed policy processes in Africa. We pay particular attention to Tanzania, where the ebpdn stewards had this year’s annual meeting. Inside, Ajoy Datta sets the scene by describing recent research from ODI’s RAPID Programme on think tanks in Africa. Vivian Kazi, from ESRF in Tanzania, describes the annual stewards meeting. Cecilia Oppenheim reports back from a parallel meeting held in Dar es Salaam on the use of research in policy processes.

In the newsletter, we also introduce several permanent features. Enrique Mendizabal takes to the Community Soapbox in an article that poses an important question to the bridging research and policy agenda: could our efforts to communicate research be leading to the deskilling of policy-makers? We also have a Stewards Corner, where our stewards from Latin America and Southeast Asia take the opportunity to introduce themselves. Finally, our section called Community News highlights events and resources that you may have missed on the platform. In this first issue we will tell you a bit more about the new website and describe some of the features and future plans.