Whether it’s reviewing existing knowledge, designing new research, or embedding long-term monitoring, our services are designed to help you generate useful findings and apply them where it matters most.
The research types we offer are outlined below. We work in collaboration with clients to tailor and blend approaches to design the best option to suit their individual needs.
Primary Research
What is Primary Research?
Primary research involves collecting and analysing new data for the first time. It is used when the information you need does not already exist, is incomplete, or is out of date.
It can help uncover new insight, test ideas, or build understanding of a topic, group, or setting in a way that existing sources can’t.
When is it useful?
✓ Exploring a new topic, setting, or population where little is currently known
✓ Gathering up-to-date insight when existing data is old, limited, or no longer reliable
✓ Identifying gaps in knowledge and priorities for further work
✓ Creating evidence to guide decisions, service design, or planning
Secondary Research
What is Secondary Research?
Sometimes the information you need already exists. Secondary research involves finding, selecting, and analysing existing sources (for example: published studies, reports, policy documents, and routine datasets) to answer a question or build a clearer picture.
Rather than collecting new data, it re-uses what’s already out there to produce fresh insight, bring evidence together, or test what’s known.
When is it useful?
✓ Identifying gaps in what is currently known, and where further research is needed.
✓ Bringing together evidence from different sources to create a single, clearer picture.
✓ Checking what the evidence says before starting a new piece of primary research.
✓ Benchmarking your organisation, service, or outcomes against published research or national data.
Monitoring & Evaluation
What is Monitoring & Evaluation?
Monitoring & Evaluation is the ongoing, structured use of data to understand what you’re doing, how well it’s working, and what to improve next. It moves beyond one-off projects by putting simple, repeatable systems in place so you can track activity, outcomes, and quality over time.
Good Monitoring & Evaluation gives you clear answers about what’s being delivered, what’s changing, and where delivery needs adjusting.
When is it useful?
✓ When you need to show impact over time
✓ When services or programmes are changing or scaling
✓ When you want to improve quality, not just measure activity
✓ When you need a clear baseline and ongoing oversight