Our Services
Research PLUS provides high-level support and guidance to you on your research and evaluation needs. From our pool of technical research and evaluation professionals and thematic experts, we find the ideal consultants to work closely with you on your projects.
Specific support varies from client to client and project to project. It covers a wide range of services from helping you identify what kind of research you should be doing that would add value to or inform your work, successfully designing and conducting the research, through to extracting key insights and actively utilizing them within your work or projects.
Research PLUS actively recruits, trains, and maintains a pool of African researchers at all levels. The pool has also been intentionally expanded over the years to include African thematic experts across all sectors. You can rest assured that you will find the expertise you need in this pool.
All our staff is thoroughly trained and mentored to be able to deliver high-quality output. As our client, you have access to our pool of researchers and consultants to help meet your project needs.
Research PLUS helps bring in the much-needed quality assurance and quality control for research and evaluation projects. This is an integral aspect of research that is unfortunately often overlooked or given minimal attention or resources.
It is critical to have a team of independent researchers working alongside the research or evaluation team. Their mandate is to support the main team by checking, citing and reporting on any anomalies. In so doing preventive and corrective measures can be taken to ensure that the integrity of the data is not compromised.
Research-centric discussions and debates, and dissemination of research findings are surely and rightfully becoming more commonplace in Africa with the help of Research Round-Up, a service developed by Research PLUS Africa and run out of the Research PLUS Hub. We know that research should be at the heart of evidence and decision-making, and creativity, and innovation for every economy and we are making that happen.
Once every quarter we host the Research Round-Up Forum where we bring together industry and academia to carry on critical discussions and debates. We select any topic of socio-economic importance and discuss it through a research lens. You will find that it’s undoubtedly an intense and worthwhile way to spend 3 hours in a quarter.
As the Research PLUS hub is open all year round, students, academia, early career researchers and practitioners are supported to conduct, share, and publish research through one-on-one and/or group consultations with research and sector experts.
Consultations, Collaboration and Co-creation are cornerstones of the Research Spring Service. There is access to a wide variety of research resources at the Research PLUS Hub available to those working on ideas and concepts for studies they want to undertake.
Research fellowships for early career researchers and consumers of applied research
A program for African professionals that gives them the chance to take a deep dive into research approaches and methods, while applying learning to their organizations’ work. A research learning partnership birthed in 2020 with the aim of promoting evidence-based practice. It is tailored for African practitioners working in any field in Africa. The ultimate goal is that the practitioners improve their capacity to undertake research and evaluations so as to inform their organizations’ work including and not limited to: innovation in products and services, adaptive programming, communication strategies and campaigns.
The Academy also seeks to improve the capacity of the practitioners to communicate research and evaluations that they are involved in ((designing, conducting themselves, or collaborating with research consultants). The training is hybrid – online and physical sessions aimed at being practical and participatory. The training includes reflection sessions and gives opportunity for co-creation of the modules. The pilot and second cohorts are supported by an international funding partner that is interested in building the capacity of their partner organisations in East Africa involved in Human Rights. Research PLUS is exploring funding options both local and international so as to scale the academy and bring on board more practitioners from other sectors.
Real life research training and experience for tertiary students across all disciplines
Developing the next generation of researchers and building a culture of research excellence amongst them. It is designed to be more relevant to daily life by applying a practical, simple and rigorous approach by being less academic while remaining true to the science. Delivery is through live online modules and physical practical sessions at our Hub. Co-creation of the training keeps the modules fresh and backed by the needs assessment of the students. Launched in 2017, when Research PLUS partnered with Marist International University College to establish the Marist Research Centre, undergraduates and post-graduate students at Marist from varied courses, received real-life research training and experiences.
In 2022 Research PLUS moved to the Research Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Hub where we are surrounded by over 10 learning institutions. The Learn Academy was relaunched with a focus on bringing in university and high school students from different campuses. This has widened our reach to more disciplines and is creating an atmosphere of shared experiences. Research PLUS hopes to nurture the young people who go through the academy to pursue careers in research and/or inculcate the importance of applying research in any other practice that they may pursue.
