LACE partners are passionate about the opportunities afforded by current and future views of learning analytics (LA) and EDM but we are concerned about missed opportunities, undesirable consequences of mis-application, investment funding failing to realise value, market failure, etc. LACE is our response, a project proposal to reduce risk and to increase benefit through an approach that accounts for the necessary unity of research, policy and practice.LACE comprises a range of activities designed to actively and passively integrate communities that are conducting LA/EDM research, early practitioner adopters, and those who are building first-generation commercial or open-source software. This integration would be used to stimulate creativity and accelerate the identification of viable and effective solutions to real problems, and hence to drive both current research and technology transfer.LACE will create and curate a knowledge base of evidence. This will capture evidence for the effectiveness and the relative desirability of the outcomes resulting from use of various tools and techniques.LACE will actively participate in the exploration of plausible futures for learning analytics and EDM by combining the creation of imaginative scenarios with participatory workshops and structured methods including a Policy Delphi to assess differences of opinion about the feasibility and desirability of possible future states, thus informing future research and policy agendas.