The consortium brings a wealth of expertise in strategy development, quantitative and qualitative research, and behavioural insights and campaigns. Alongside Icaro, the core team is formed of research and strategy consultancy Brook Lyndhurst and social insights research agency The Social Agency. Additional support will come from polling agency Deltapoll, and behaviour change specialists Behaviour Change and Winning Moves.
This new partnership will allow CaSE to build on its existing public opinion programme with both quantitative research, such as polling, and a range of qualitative techniques that delve deeper into the public’s attitudes, motivations and reasoning.
This will generate a range of outputs to support R&D advocacy and engagement and help the sector respond proactively to challenges and opportunities, as we refresh and expand CaSE’s existing advocacy toolkit, which is designed to help turn insights into action.
CaSE’s 2025 public opinion programme has already begun, with a focus on delivering the first wave of a study which will track attitudes to R&D over time, with a second wave planned for 2028. CaSE is working with the consortium to engage the R&D sector to develop the polling questions and focus group topics, to ensure that the sector can make best use of the findings. We expect to conduct the public opinion research in the summer and share the results with the sector in autumn.
Explore CaSE's public opinion work
ExploreWe are delighted to be working with such a strong consortium of organisations to deliver our ambitious public opinion programme. This new partnership will support CaSE’s ongoing exploration of how the public think and feel about R&D, and the translation of those insights into practical advocacy and communications tools and advice.
Ben Bleasdale
Director of Public Opinion, CaSE
This is an exciting and hugely important opportunity to understand public attitudes to science and R&D. At a time when the sector faces multiple challenges, CaSE’s programme of research will provide a robust, independent evidence base to help guide sound decision making.
Phil Downing
Director, Icaro
If you would like to hear more about our public opinion research programme, please contact Rebecca Hill on rebecca@sciencecampaign.org.uk.
About CaSE
Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is the leading independent voice for UK R&D.
We are a charity supported by a diverse membership including businesses, universities, professional bodies, research charities and individuals. Our members span the whole breadth of R&D – including discovery research, science, engineering, and innovation across the public, private, and charitable sectors.
We collaborate with our members, partners and the public to lend our clear, expert voice to decisions about research and development. We specialise in developing non-partisan, responsive solutions that help research and innovation to thrive in ways that improve people’s lives and livelihoods.
CaSE’s public opinion programme aims to generate insights and data-informed advocacy tools that can support a behaviour change in how our sector advocates for R&D, with the aim of making R&D matter to more people. This programme is supported by a £2.7m grant from Wellcome for 2024-29, building on CaSE’s 2021-24 Discovery Decade programme.
About Icaro
Icaro is a social research agency that delivers insight to change behaviour. We are a team of senior researchers who are highly experienced in working across public policy and commercial research. As a company dedicated to delivering high quality research, we are a Market Research Society Company Partner.
About Brook Lyndhurst
Brook Lyndhurst is a social research company that helps UK policymakers, charities and other organisations to gather and use trustworthy evidence and insight. For 25 years we have helped clients to develop behavioural insights about new areas of policy, and to help them evaluate the outcomes of their projects and programmes. We focus especially on sustainability, citizens and organisational behaviours.
About The Social Agency
The Social Agency are a multi award-winning research and innovation agency. They work with government, the 3rd sector and other agencies who are interested in using evidence to build a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable world.
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