As an independent group, we aim to focus upon those research areas and research questions that appear to have been neglected, or inadequately addressed, by mainstream academic and commercial research institutions. We view our own role and research style as being complementary to that of such institutions, and we do not attempt either to duplicate all aspects of their function, or to emulate all details of their practices. At the same time, we are keen to collaborate with academics and commercial organisations where appropriate opportunities arise to do so; and to learn from the wider research community in order to enhance our own understanding and practices.
Our independent status has given us opportunities to develop and practice a more nimble, creative, flexible and reflexive style of research than may always be possible within a ‘mainstream’ academic institution. As observers and investigators of the ways that research is conducted within such institutions, we also look for ways in which it might be improved, in terms of the coherence, effectiveness and efficiency of research tasks and projects, the synergy of research groups, and the wellbeing of individual researchers. Our style of research is characterised by the following objectives, strategies and values:
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To identify unexplored research areas and neglected research questions;
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To develop and deploy innovative frameworks, models, methods and instruments;
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To demonstrate the usefulness of such frameworks, models, methods and instruments to the wider research community;
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To optimise the dissemination of our research findings by packaging and publishing them in a clear, accessible, timely and efficient manner – using innovative formats and media, as well as more conventional formats and media that conform to the standards and traditions of mainstream scholarship;
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To configure our projects, and our personal roles within those projects, in ways that maximise opportunities for creative interpersonal synergy, and minimise risks of destructive interpersonal antagonism;
- To optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of our research activities by minimising our use of, and dependence upon, the more arbitrary, bureaucratic, inefficient and counter-productive institutional procedures and practices;
