SELECTED WORK
Real projects. Real deliverables.
A selection of projects showing how PolicySpark builds evidence-grounded system models and translates them into decision-ready outputs: clear pathways, leverage points, and practical “what to validate next” agendas.
Evidence at scale · pathway portfolioASEAN Environment System Map (ASPEN)
Client: The Asia Foundation (ASEAN)
A regional system model built from a large evidence base, translated into a practical portfolio of pathways to support prioritization, bundling, and sequencing across interconnected domains.
- Scale with traceability: worked across 724 source documents, processed into structured influence statements used to build an evidence-backed graph and pathway portfolio
- Decision-first outputs: a curated set of “if we act here, then…” pathways plus cross-cutting enabling conditions, risks, and validation priorities
- Human review built in: structured extraction to handle scale, refined through human-in-the-loop validation (not black-box conclusions)
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ASEAN Environment System Map (ASPEN)
Client: The Asia Foundation (ASEAN)
A regional system model built from a large evidence base, translated into a practical portfolio of pathways to support prioritization, bundling, and sequencing across interconnected domains.
- Scale with traceability: worked across 724 source documents, processed into structured influence statements used to build an evidence-backed graph and pathway portfolio
- Decision-first outputs: a curated set of “if we act here, then…” pathways plus cross-cutting enabling conditions, risks, and validation priorities
- Human review built in: structured extraction to handle scale, refined through human-in-the-loop validation (not black-box conclusions)
Knowledge governance · ethical collaborationBridging Knowledge Systems (Peace-Athabasca Delta)
Client: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
A practical framework for ethical knowledge sharing and Indigenous intellectual property protection to support respectful, trust-based collaboration among Indigenous communities, government, and researchers.
- Built around clear guidance on rights, consent (FPIC), and cultural protocols
- Concrete agreement tools: MOUs, data-sharing agreements, consent forms, and plain-language definitions to reduce misunderstandings
- Practical data handling across the lifecycle: collection, secure storage, access controls, controlled sharing, and disposal/return
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Bridging Knowledge Systems (Peace-Athabasca Delta)
Client: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
A practical framework for ethical knowledge sharing and Indigenous intellectual property protection to support respectful, trust-based collaboration among Indigenous communities, government, and researchers.
- Built around clear guidance on rights, consent (FPIC), and cultural protocols
- Concrete agreement tools: MOUs, data-sharing agreements, consent forms, and plain-language definitions to reduce misunderstandings
- Practical data handling across the lifecycle: collection, secure storage, access controls, controlled sharing, and disposal/return
Stakeholder modeling · causal graph + leverage pointsKnowledge Use in Salmon Conservation & Management
Client: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) — Pacific Salmon
A stakeholder-driven modeling study that built a directed, weighted causal graph from workshop input to identify leverage points affecting how knowledge supports salmon decisions.
- Clear guiding question posed to participants: improving knowledge use for more effective salmon decision-making
- Workshops produced models that were analyzed as directed weighted graphs, including an “unprocessed union graph,” influence graphs, and a leverage points graph
- Built to compare perspectives and surface gaps, contradictions, and synergies across groups
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Knowledge Use in Salmon Conservation & Management
Client: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) — Pacific Salmon
A stakeholder-driven modeling study that built a directed, weighted causal graph from workshop input to identify leverage points affecting how knowledge supports salmon decisions.
- Clear guiding question posed to participants: improving knowledge use for more effective salmon decision-making
- Workshops produced models that were analyzed as directed weighted graphs, including an “unprocessed union graph,” influence graphs, and a leverage points graph
- Built to compare perspectives and surface gaps, contradictions, and synergies across groups
Scientific Integrity Policy · Theory of Change + indicatorsModel Scientific Integrity Policy (mSIP): Theory of Change & Performance Indicators
Client: Office of the Chief Science Advisor (Canada)
An evidence-based Theory of Change and indicator set to support departments and agencies in implementing the Model Policy on Scientific Integrity and building performance monitoring and evaluation plans.
- Combined literature review with three stakeholder-driven model-building workshops involving 15 departments and agencies
- Produced a causal model of results pathways (hypotheses), identified 9 policy leverage points, and constructed an mSIP Theory of Change
- Proposed candidate indicators and a monitoring approach to test what’s working over time
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Model Scientific Integrity Policy (mSIP): Theory of Change & Performance Indicators
Client: Office of the Chief Science Advisor (Canada)
An evidence-based Theory of Change and indicator set to support departments and agencies in implementing the Model Policy on Scientific Integrity and building performance monitoring and evaluation plans.
- Combined literature review with three stakeholder-driven model-building workshops involving 15 departments and agencies
- Produced a causal model of results pathways (hypotheses), identified 9 policy leverage points, and constructed an mSIP Theory of Change
- Proposed candidate indicators and a monitoring approach to test what’s working over time
Featured Case StudyASEAN Environment System Map (ASPEN) — From 724 sources to a decision-ready pathway portfolio
Client: The Asia Foundation (ASEAN)
Evidence backbone → system picture → prioritized pathways → enabling conditions + “what to validate next”.
ASEAN Environment System Map (ASPEN) — From 724 sources to a decision-ready pathway portfolio
Client: The Asia Foundation (ASEAN)
Evidence backbone → system picture → prioritized pathways → enabling conditions + “what to validate next”.
What went in
- 724 source documents spanning environment and connected domains
- A practical need: move beyond fragmented evidence toward a coherent picture that supports prioritization and coordination.
What we did (in plain language)
- Converted text into structured “what influences what” relationship candidates with provenance (so claims can be checked later)
- Used machine reading to handle scale, then reviewed and refined the structure through human-in-the-loop validation
- Translated the system picture into a curated set of pathways: “if we act here, then…” chains with dependencies, risks, and trade-offs.
What came out
- An evidence-backed system map (the “shared picture”)
- A prioritized pathway portfolio (the “so what”)
- Briefing-ready supporting assets, including a clear agenda of what to validate next (where evidence is strong, mixed, or missing)
Why it’s different
Most mapping efforts either stay small, or they scale up and become hard to interrogate. This work demonstrates scale + traceability: comprehensive processing across hundreds of sources while preserving a checkable evidence trail and a practical pathway portfolio.
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