Tom Ling is a senior research leader at RAND Europe. He leads evaluations and applied research focused on the key challenges facing organisations in health, well-being, and development.
Before re-joining RAND, Ling was head of Impact Innovation and Evidence at Save the Children where his responsibilities included ensuring that evaluations contribute to policy and change in the challenging environment of international development. Prior to Save the Children, Ling spent ten years at RAND Europe as director for Evaluation and Performance Audit following four years as senior research fellow at the National Audit Office in the UK. Before that he taught and researched in various universities.
He has over 20 years' experience contributing to research projects with the European Commission, Save the Children, UK government departments, the National Audit Office, the Health Foundation in the UK and many others. He has published widely on evaluation, accountability, and related topics. He recently co-edited Performance Audit: Contributing to Accountability in Democratic Government (London: Edward Elgar), following his Performance Audit Handbook and The Evidence Book, a critical examination of the use of evidence in public policy and service delivery.
Ling is Professor (Emeritus) at Anglia Ruskin University, an honorary senior visiting research fellow at University of Cambridge, and a member of the Health Foundation College of Assessors. He studied economics and politics at Cambridge University and completed a Ph.D. in government at Essex University.
Selected Publications
Stephanie Diepeveen, Tom Ling, Marc Suhrcke, Martin Roland, Theresa M Marteau, "Public acceptability of government intervention to change health-related behaviours: a systematic review and narrative synthesis," International Journal of Integrated Care, 2013
Tom Ling "Achieving equality at scale through system transformation; evaluating system change," in Kim Forss and Mita Marra, Speaking Justice to Power Ethical and Methodological Challenges for Evaluators Comparative Policy Evaluation, Transaction Press, 2013
T Ling, "Evaluating complex and unfolding interventions in real time," Evaluation, 18(1):75-87, 2012
El Turabi A, Hallsworth M, Ling T, and Grant J, "A novel performance monitoring framework for health research systems: experiences of the National Institute for Health Research in England," Health Research Policy and Systems, 9(13), 2011
Tom Ling and Jeremy Lonsdale, Performance Auditing and Accountability to Parliament in the UK, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Tom Ling and Ann Raven, "Pharmogenetics and Uncertainty: Implications for Policy Makers," Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 37(3), 2006
David Melzer et al., "Pharmacogenetics: Policy Needs for Personal Prescribing," Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 10(1), 2005
Tom Ling, "Ex Ante Evaluation and the Changing Public Audit Function: The Scenario Planning Approach," Evaluation, 9(4), 2003
