Date: Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September 2025
Location: Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford, and online (hybrid conference)
Hosted by: Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab)
Deadline for call for contributions: 24 March 2024 12 noon UK
Our annual conference returns, with the continued aim of bringing together the rigour of cutting-edge academic research with an applied, real-world focus and insights from reflective practitioners.
On this page you will find SOC25's key theme & clusters as well as more information on how to submit your proposal. This year we are excited to be introducing a variety of new session formats.
The Social Outcomes Conference is the annual convening of the world's leading researchers, policymakers and practitioners working to improve social outcomes, hosted by the Government Outcomes Lab at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
Since 2018, we have convened a growing global community dedicated to improving social outcomes through cross-sector partnerships, offering a space for shared learning and meaningful engagement with the emerging evidence. The early editions of the conference had a particular emphasis on innovative, outcomes-oriented forms of cross-sector partnerships such as social impact bonds (increasingly referred to as social outcomes partnerships or social outcomes contracts). This has since served as a springboard for exploration of wider questions:
Though the topics have expanded, the conference remains committed to bridging academia, policy, and practice for better social outcomes, emphasising inclusive evidence-building and open knowledge-sharing. We encourage participants to embrace this interdisciplinary exchange, recognising that learning from those outside one’s immediate field is a valuable opportunity. We are committed to rigorous research and evidence-driven insights, ensuring that academic advancements inform best practices in policy and implementation—and that, in turn, real-world practice shapes the research agenda.
Attendees can expect a dynamic environment that fosters cross-sector dialogue, deepens understanding, and advances the field of outcomes-focused work. As in previous years, the conference will feature discussions on the latest thinking and findings from academic research alongside insights from emerging practice across different geographies, disciplines and policy areas.
Our agenda is developed in collaboration with the wider community of academics, practitioners, and policymakers. We do this through our annual call for contributions, where the community submit their proposals for speaking at the conference. Every year we get 100s of submissions which the GO Lab Team carefully review in line with the criteria and priorities laid out in the call for contributions.
Last year’s conference highlighted a shared challenge faced by practitioners, policymakers, and researchers worldwide: outcomes-based contracting often remains trapped in the innovation stage—piloted in small-scale projects, perceived as niche, and struggling to have its learnings properly embedded into mainstream policy and practice. Across sessions, we heard how many were grappling with this very issue, culminating in a dedicated discussion at the end of the conference. Building on this momentum, SOC25 seeks to push the conversation further, exploring how we can embed systemic, mission-oriented approaches that moves beyond isolated successes to achieve large-scale, lasting impact across sectors and institutions. SOC24’s conversations highlighted the need to transition from isolated achievements to sustainable, impactful frameworks. The salience of this challenge echoes globally: with multi-lateral organisations like the UN and the World Economic Forum emphasising the importance of scalable and verifiable impact strategies to enhance accountability and drive meaningful change and the World Bank actively exploring ways to integrate sustainability and resilience into its projects, aiming to institutionalise meaningful outcomes at scale. Governments worldwide are also grappling with how to centre meaningful outcomes within their institutions such as the UK's focus on mission-driven government reflecting a broader commitment to embedding impactful strategies into public administration
To sustain ambitious social change, focus must shift from isolated achievements to embedding systemic, mission-oriented ways of working across sectors and institutions. At this year's Social Outcomes Conference, we ask: how can a focus on outcomes and impact become institutionalised in policy and practice? The theme for SOC25 is:
How can we build enduring frameworks that prioritise long-term, preventative strategies, fostering collaboration across sectors? How can outcomes-based working help embed accountability and value for money? How can partnerships and policies evolve to address critical societal challenges with an impact-focused, mission-oriented approach? What does it mean to put a social-contract, values, and outcomes at the heart of cross-sector partnerships? At SOC25 we will explore how mission-oriented governance, impact measurement, innovative contracting practices, and cross-sector partnerships can become mainstream strategies for sustainable and scalable outcomes across sectors. To apply this theme, we've organised the conference into several clusters around the mechanisms, tools, and framing for institutionalising outcomes. By engaging with these themes and clusters, SOC25 aims to advance the conversation on how to embed meaningful outcomes into the fabric of our institutions, driving systemic change that is both sustainable and impactful.
We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to creating a conference where the rich intersection of different voices and backgrounds are prioritised. We encourage applications from individuals and organisations representing a range of backgrounds spanning ethnic, cultural, geographical, and income differences.
To provide coherence and depth to SOC25, in addition to our conference theme we are organising the conference around the following clusters:
This cluster echoes the overarching theme, making space to examine how we can embed a systemic focus on outcomes and impact into policies, partnerships, and practices in our institutions. Key questions include:
This cluster focuses on some of the key mechanisms for achieving meaningful outcomes and embedding it across systems such as the role of data and evaluation in ensuring accountability, driving improvements, and embedding outcomes-oriented practices. We welcome contributions on:
This cluster explores the role of cross-sector partnerships in driving the embedding of outcomes. It seeks to explore how our contracting practices, partnerships, and mechanisms can enable reform and meaningful outcomes to be embedded throughout processes. We are particularly interested in:
Across all clusters, we welcome submissions addressing a variety of policy areas. We are particularly keen to hear from those working in an outcomes-focussed way in:
Besides our overarching theme, areas related to outcomes-based contracting which we are especially interested to hear about include:
The deadline for submission is 24 March 2024 12pm (noon) UK time. Over the following weeks after the deadline we will review all submissions, and announce the full conference programme in June.
We encourage submissions from:
We encourage submissions from across academia and the practice and policymaking communities. As such, the Call for Contributions is open to both research paper abstracts and proposals for practice-focused presentations.
Your submission is more likely to be successful if it articulates clearly how:
Selected authors will have the opportunity to discuss their research or practical insights at the conference in a variety of engaging and interactive sessions, from deep-dive panel discussions, to roundtables and big picture sessions and more.
For the first time this year we will also be opening up a number of other formats. You will need to indicate which format you are applying for.
This year, the Social Outcomes Conference 2025 (SOC25) will take place on 4-5 September 2025. We will host SOC25 as a ‘hybrid’ online/in-person conference. In-person participants will join us at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford and virtual participation for our global community will be through Zoom.
For the Social Outcomes Conference we have four guiding principles which we encourage applicants to consider when making their submission. These conference principles indicate priorities for SOC25.
Beyond formal conference proceedings, there is also another opportunity to share your work with our community through our Engaging with Evidence series. The Engaging with Evidence series provides an additional opportunity to explore and expand upon topics that could not be accommodated in the main conference agenda.
For any questions regarding academic papers submissions or to discuss your proposals for practice-focused presentations, please contact us at the Government Outcomes Lab, golab@bsg.ox.ac.uk.
If you are a policymaker or practitioner looking to share insights from your work but feel unsure about how best to format these at the conference, do get in touch with us at golab@bsg.ox.ac.uk to discuss your ideas.