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Work with IG12

What question are you trying to make answerable?

As an independent research consultancy, IG12 works with organisations facing questions that cannot be answered reliably through a single dataset, discipline or conventional research method.

If the question is still loose, that is a reasonable place to start an enquiry.

Based in London, IG12 works with organisations on projects spanning local, national and international contexts.

The work is relevant to cultural institutions, public bodies, universities and research organisations, civic and third-sector organisations, and companies investigating unfamiliar markets or systems.

Start with the condition

Most enquiries begin as one of these. None of them needs to be resolved before writing.

  1. 01A question that needs investigating.
  2. 02Fragmented evidence that needs bringing together.
  3. 03A research programme that needs direction.
  4. 04A market, place, network or institution that needs understanding.
  5. 05An analytical process that needs to become repeatable.
  6. 06A research instrument that needs developing.
  7. 07An existing team that needs additional research or technical capacity.

What IG12 offers

Three areas of work

01

Evidence systems

The condition

Useful information is divided across incompatible sources, inconsistently named, or held by different institutions. No one can say reliably what it covers or what it leaves out.

What IG12 takes on

Establishing the foundations through which an organisation can investigate a subject reliably and repeatedly, rather than commissioning the same groundwork again each time.

Enquire about evidence systems

Forms the work takes

  • An audit of existing research activity, sources and data
  • Integration of previously disconnected datasets
  • Resolution of people, organisations and places across sources
  • Classifications, identifiers and provenance that hold over time
  • Reproducible analytical pipelines
  • Monitoring and update processes

Where this is demonstrated

  • Barking Community Research →

    Joining Charity Commission accounts to published grant records, defining an 808-organisation population, and separating source coverage from actual absence.

  • Academic Writing Series →

    Resolving a roster of 634 participants across ORCID, OpenAlex and Crossref, and grouping versions of the same output into publication families.

02

Applied investigations and strategy

The condition

A question matters to a decision, but there is no established route to answering it — the evidence is scattered, the boundaries are unclear, or the usual method does not reach.

What IG12 takes on

Translating the problem into a researchable question, assembling the evidence it needs, and carrying the analysis through to findings, limits and implications.

Enquire about applied investigations and strategy

Forms the work takes

  • Translation of an organisational problem into a researchable question
  • Analysis of markets, programmes, institutions, networks, places or funding systems
  • Combined quantitative, spatial, network and documentary evidence
  • Testing of assumptions held by the organisation
  • Scenarios and strategic directions
  • Findings, limits and implications written for the decision at hand

Where this is demonstrated

  • Art Market →

    International public-data acquisition and a census-driven index funnel narrowing fifty US states to five entry cities. Commissioned work; the recommendations remain the client’s and stay withheld.

  • Barking Community Research →

    Tracing how £92.2m of observed award value enters a borough-connected population, and how reported income concentrates within it.

03

Research instruments

The condition

The evidence exists, but there is no way for people to explore it, keep it current, or build on it after the report is filed.

What IG12 takes on

Building the interface through which complex evidence can be explored, communicated or extended, tied to a research purpose rather than produced as a generic dashboard.

Enquire about research instruments

Forms the work takes

  • Interactive maps and observatories
  • Analytical dashboards and network interfaces
  • Monitoring systems and searchable archives
  • Research sandboxes for testing a question
  • Public-facing research environments
  • Internal decision-support tools

Where this is demonstrated

  • Codex / Strata →

    An interactive environment for London’s cultural organisations, with space-syntax analysis reading cultural presence against the shape of the street.

  • FoE — Political Environmentalism →

    A self-directed observatory in development: five evidence systems registered onto a shared chronology and geography. No findings are claimed yet.

The three overlap. An investigation often needs an evidence system built first, and an instrument is only worth building once the analysis behind it holds. The projects listed against each area are methodological demonstrations — they show how the work is constructed, not a guarantee of the same result elsewhere. Each enquiry button opens an email with that area of work already named.

How IG12 can work with an organisation

IG12 can lead a research programme, deliver a defined investigation or instrument, or partner with an existing team.

Lead

Embedded research leadership

IG12 works within or alongside an organisation to structure and direct an existing research programme — defining priorities, establishing methods and standards, selecting technical approaches and reviewing delivery.

Deliver

Commissioned research and development

IG12 takes responsibility for a defined investigation, evidence system or instrument and delivers it end to end, from research design and acquisition through to analysis, interpretation and implementation.

Partner

Collaborative research partnership

IG12 works jointly with an existing team, contributing methods, technical delivery, interpretation or specialist research capacity. The distribution of work may change across the engagement.

These are modes of working, not packages or stages. The right one depends on what already exists inside the organisation and how much of the work it needs to hold itself.

Begin the conversation

Email — direct

Send an enquiry

Or write directly to abdel.abdou@ig12.co.uk. There is no form, and a fully specified brief is not required — a description of the situation is enough to establish whether IG12 is the right practice for it.

Useful to include

  • The question or situation.
  • The decision or outcome the work should support.
  • The evidence or data already available.
  • Any relevant timeline.

Abdelkawy Abdou is IG12’s Founder and Principal Researcher. Every enquiry is read and answered personally.