CEDIL is a £15 million FCDO-funded programme that aims to drive forward the field of impact evaluation and evidence synthesis and development evaluation both theoretically and in practice. CEDIL has three key principles: - Establish a high quality, inter-disciplinary academic centre to innovate in the field of impact evaluation and evidence synthesis - Design, commission and implement impact evaluations and evidence synthesis - Promote the uptake and use of evidence from impact evaluations and evidence synthesis. CEDIL will test its impact evaluation and evidence synthesis products through programmes of work which will be implemented by the Programme Directorate. CEDIL will undertake a feedback process of the experiences of implementing these studies which will be presented in a series of ‘lessons learned’ papers.