Research Design for Social Impact
Registration for our next cohort starting January 10th 2025 is now open!
An intimate, global, group program for non-profit and academic changemakers who want to design equity-centred, anti-oppressive monitoring, evaluation and research for social action
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Conventional Monitoring, Evaluation and Research processes do not centre equity
In academic and social impact spaces, monitoring, evaluation, and research processes often miss the mark on equity and inclusivity.
Too often, knowledge production is shaped by pressures to publish, secure funding, or achieve pre-determined metrics. Terms like “impact metrics,” “value for money,” and “deliverables” dominate the discourse, sidelining the human connections and systemic changes that truly matter.
For conscientious researchers like you, it’s not just about ticking boxes or producing data—it’s about designing evidence-based practices that center integrity, ethics, and the lived realities of the communities you serve.
But if you’re here, chances are you’ve struggled to align these values with conventional methodologies. That’s because traditional training wasn’t built for changemakers like you.
You need an approach that disrupts the status quo.
You need a different approach.
Is this course for you?
At Design for Social Impact Lab, our purpose is to create a profound social impact by revolutionising the way organisations and individuals approach social change. In the pursuit of social impact, creating inclusive and anti-racist monitoring, evaluation and research and learning is not just an option; it's a necessity. Our approach to research and learning is rebellious and anti-oppressive.
Using our eight principles; Co-Design, Pedagogies of Care and Solidarity; Anti-Racism and Decolonial Approaches; Environment Justice; Intersectional; Systems Thinking and Structural Change and Action we will show you how these concepts can be applied to your monitoring, evaluation, research and learning practices.Â
This program is for you if you are:
- An academic researcher or postgraduate student committed to ethical, equity-focused methodologies.
- A UX researcher or technical advisor interested in shifting power through inclusive evidence design.
- A learning specialist or evaluator seeking practical tools to challenge extractive practices.
- In a role where you design “evidence” based social impact programs?
- Fed up with extractive, exclusionary and tokenistic approaches?
- Wanting to learn from a wide range of guest speakers, including facilitators with Lived experience of systemic injustices?
If the answer is yes, then come join us from January 10th 2025.
We hold live sessions on Fridays, from 8:30 New York/ 10:30 Rio/ 13:30 GMT/16:30 Nairobi/
You'll come away with ideas and tangible actions, reshaping the narratives and power dynamics that perpetuate inequality. Most importantly, you'll have tried and tested methods that you can apply to your own work and practice.
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What you can expect from the course, and us
This is not your standard online program. The Research Design for Social Impact course is an 8-week immersive journey crafted specifically for academics, researchers, and change-makers in search of tools, perspectives, and strategies to create meaningful social impact through their scholarship.
As part of this program, you’ll connect with a global cohort of peers eager to embed critical, participatory, and action-oriented methodologies into their research, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MERL) practices.
- A Rigorous 8-Week Structure: Participate in weekly live sessions (1–1.5 hours), including an individualized 1:1 coaching session, alongside independent activities that delve deep into equity-centered design, anti-racist, and anti-colonial methodologies.
- Research in Action: Learn how to apply participatory methods to real-world challenges, tackling resistance from institutions or funders while maintaining integrity in your work.
- Innovative Methodologies: Explore creative, collaborative research tools and co-analysis techniques that center structurally marginalized voices and disrupt traditional knowledge hierarchies.
- Flexible, Self-Paced Engagement: Access readings, guided reflections, and live webinars tailored to support different learning styles.
- Power and Justice in MERL: Critically examine the role of equity, power, and systemic change in your research through case studies, group discussions, and frameworks designed for transformative impact.
- Collaborative Peer Learning: Engage in interactive, dialogue-driven sessions that emphasize knowledge-sharing and co-creation with peers, rather than passive lecture formats.
- Learning Alongside Diverse Practitioners: In this course, you will engage with a diverse cohort of social impact practitioners, UX researchers, and other academics, creating a unique opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaboration. By learning alongside professionals from various fields, you’ll gain new perspectives on how to integrate research, design, and social action in ways that push the boundaries of traditional academic scholarship. This dynamic blend of expertise allows you to challenge assumptions, share innovative practices, and co-create knowledge that drives systemic change.
By the end of the course, you will come away with
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- A Solid Foundation in Equity-Centered Research Design: Gain the language, frameworks, and conceptual tools to integrate equity design principles into your research and scholarship.
- Practical, Real-World Experience: Apply theoretical knowledge to real-life research challenges, receiving guidance from a team of experts with decades of experience in designing equity-driven monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL).
- An Individualized Action Plan: Develop a personalized plan for embedding the eight Design for Social Impact principles into your academic and research practice, ensuring that your work is grounded in anti-racism, co-design, and systemic change.
- Ongoing Learning and Support: Join a global community of like-minded scholars, researchers, and changemakers committed to transformative, justice-centered research. Engage in collaborative learning, peer discussions, and share valuable experiences, insights, and opportunities that promote collective action and solidarity
Our Guest Speakers
On this course, you get to learn with and from a diverse group of people!
Each week we invite practitioners to share their experiences of integrating anti-oppressive research and evaluation methods. These community conversations are practical, enriching and show you how a diverse range of people, from around the globe, are applying these methods in a wide variety of non-profit and research roles.Â
Scroll below to see some of our previous faculty members.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What makes this different from other courses ?
What if I can't make every live session?
I'm not fluent in English, Is this available in other languages?
My job is pretty busy- what sort of time commitment do I need?
Do you offer subsidised places?
Who will facilitate the course?
Can we take this course as a team?
Course overview
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Week 1: Introduction to Research for Design for Social Impact (Foundations)
- Theme: Defining Research for Design for Social Impact.
- Exploring the motivations behind anti-oppressive approaches to monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL)
- Design for Social Impact's key principles, framework and ethical considerations.
Week 2: Intersectionality in Research
- Theme: Unveiling Interconnected Identities
- Discussing the role of power dynamics in shaping monitoring, evaluation, research and learning processes.
- Understanding the concept of intersectionality in monitoring, evaluation, research and learning processes.
- Ethics, informed consent through an intersectional lens.
Week 3: Anti-Colonial and  Anti-Racist Approaches in Research
- Theme: Challenging Colonial Narratives
- Critiquing colonial biases in MERL methodologies.
- Examining the importance of centering multiple knowledges and perspectives.
- Incorporating anti-colonial and decolonial approaches to monitoring, evaluation, research and learning design and execution.
Week 4: Activist Methodologies
- Theme: Bridging Theory and Action
- Exploring critical participatory action research and other activist methodologies.
- Photovoice
- CartographiesÂ
Week 5: Activist MethodologiesÂ
- Theme: Bridging Theory and Action
- Engaging with communities in the research process.
- Digital Methods
- QuantCrit ( critical quantitative approaches)Â
Week 6: Co-Analysis in Rebellious Research
- Theme: Collaborative Analysis for Collective Understanding
- Introducing co-analysis as a tool for collective interpretation of data.
- Facilitating collaborative sense-making within research teams.
- Case studies illustrating successful co-analysis in rebellious research projects.  Â
Weeks 7: Pedagogies of Care and Solidarity
- Explore the principles of care and solidarity in activist methodologies and how they challenge traditional, extractive approaches to research and practice.
- Collaboratively design strategies to incorporate care and solidarity into your own work, ensuring methodologies are community-driven and anti-oppressive
- Develop your own action plan for centring care and wellbeing in your personal practice.
Week 8: Research for Structural Change and Action
- Theme: Applying Research for Design Principles in Practice
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Organising research and evidence for advocacy and social action
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Practical tools for implementing change
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Reflecting on the challenges and successes of the research process
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Afro-Futurism and charting the path forward.
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Design for Social Impact has worked  with dozens of organisations, including:
