Our Research

The ecology of resilience

Our mission is to build strong, safe and well communities. We focus on community resilience, framing it in ways that go beyond an individual’s capacity to ‘bounce back’, and recognising that this personal level of resilience often relies on access to resources and systems.

Addressing complex social challenges

We research complicated social issues like racism, hate crimes, extremism, diversity and the relationship between online and offline wellbeing, so that policy and programmes can rely on strong, empirical data for the best outcomes. Our research team are leaders in their fields and passionate about what they do. The projects we run focus on real-world outcomes, with recommendations for policy and programming.

Inclusive societies

The kind of resilience that we want to foster is ‘pro-social’ resilience – resilience that everyone benefits from. As we face more challenges like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, we think it is important to address these together.

The intersection of academia, government, and community

CRIS is a consortium of international academic and community organisations, and we work closely with government and other stakeholders of our work. We have regular roundtables, we co-design our projects and publications, and have community representation throughout our organisational structure. We think this is the best way to keep our research relevant and meaningful.

Four research themes, one consortium

We have four research themes: Challenging Racisms and Enhancing Social Belonging; Building Resilience to Social Harms (including violent extremism); Youth, Diversity and Wellbeing in a Digital Age; and the Dynamics of Violent Extremism. Together these streams represent the broad ways in which we hope to create resilient, inclusive, and vibrant societies.