Guiding you through the power of Research Insight
The Research Box is an audience insight consultancy providing clients with research studies and community engagement projects that genuinely help them move forward or instigate the change they want to achieve.
The Research Box
Spearheaded by Alison Fleming, principal consultant and co-founder, The Research Box has a rich legacy of delivering valuable insights to clients for over twenty years in the research industry.
Alison is an experienced research consultant, primarily specialising in qualitative research with expertise in the natural and built heritage sectors that are so important for human wellbeing.
Growing your ideas and strategy to get quality results.
Our research engages with stakeholders and communities to understand how they interact and perceive the natural world and resilient landscapes. We identify how the public can connect with the challenges we face for nature recovery and implementing future climate mitigation strategies.
Human
We thrive on immersing ourselves in human behaviour and understanding how humans interact with environments and services. Our raison d’etre is to ignite your project with incisive analysis evidenced by user participation and involvement. We provide deep thinking using long-standing research principles.
Engaged Guidance
Engaging stakeholders and the public is a key facet of our work but it is always commissioned to assist clients with their projects, whether they be to create high-quality visitor experiences or to ensure that future landscape change is implemented smoothly and using ‘right design, right place’ principles for future generations and the planet.
INNOVATIVE RESEARCH
From traditional research methods, including online or in-person focus groups to quantitative research, we devise the best approach for your project and audience. We also innovate with mobile ethnography, video and digital techniques to elicit authentic responses from individuals.
Our Clients
Sectors we work for
Outdoors
Our knowledge of human interactions with the outdoors helps us to advise clients when managing landscapes for nature and for public benefit. The assessment of natural capital gained from a site can be obtained through research with stakeholders and examining how change can happen. We’ve worked for Wildlife Trusts, National Trust and Natural England looking at wellbeing outcomes, evaluation studies, visitor appeal, and infrastructure development.
Government
Over the years, we have helped local authorities to navigate various aspects of their service delivery with audience insight. Research has also been commissioned simply to understand how their public health offers can instigate behavioural change. This has been done with studies examining perceptions of value with regard to council tax, ways to reduce drink driving, examining attitudes and behaviour towards road safety.
Heritage
Our experience here is extensive, with visitor interpretation and experience design being foremost in our activities over the past ten years.
We’ve worked for many National Trust properties over 60 projects.
Including:
Stonehenge landscape, Basildon Park, Sissinghurst, Montacute and Dunham Massey to name but a few.
What our clients say about us
Experiences and Partnerships Curator, National Trust
“Thank you again for all your work and the hugely valuable insights you have given us. It is terrific to see the enthusiasm and interest in Gertrude Jekyll and Munstead Wood, and to see that so much of the suggested offer would be workable”
Public Engagement Manager
“I was really impressed by your presentation and the analysis and insight you gave us. It has been a pleasure working with you and I will absolutely come back to you again for my next project.”
Landscape & Woodland Design Advisor, Forestry Commission
“I have worked with Research Box on a number of commissions over fifteen years. Whilst managing a Local Nature Partnership their work to identify how residents engaged with landscape profoundly changed delivery of our access to nature programme. The evidence helped us secure Lottery Funding. I was delighted to work again with Research Box as Landscape & Woodland Design Advisor with the Forestry Commission. Research Box went far beyond just delivering the brief. Their insights derived from regional and national stakeholders brought a new understanding from various points of view and gave us a solid start for future action.”
Our Values
Deep-thinking
Friendly
Authenticity
Enabling change
Our Project Journal
Forestry Commission
The Research Box, examined the issue of increased tree planting in three areas with different historical backgrounds, including a moorland setting,...
Public Perceptions of Agri-Environment Schemes
Natural England wanted to gain insights into how the public responds to landscape change. We worked with visualisations produced by Land Use...
Visitor Proposition Testing in Bath
A leading conservation charity wanted to launch a new interpretation of a historic venue in Bath. We conducted a series of focus groups and...