About Wild Fig Research

What we do

We support communities, voluntary, community, faith, social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations, universities, and the public sector to design and deliver participatory research that is ethical, relational, and rooted in place. Drawing on our deep local knowledge of South Yorkshire and connections across the UK Higher Education and research sector.

We work in partnership to translate insights into evidence driven, visually engaging and accessible outputs that can genuinely shift thinking and practice at every level.

This might mean co-designing a piece of research from scratch with the people it's about, synthesising years of practice into actionable insights for key stakeholders, capturing what's worked in a place-based initiative so others can learn from it, and creating inclusive spaces for people to share their experiences, identify hopes for the future and ways to make change together.

Working at the intersection of academia, community organising, and public services, we offer participatory research and evaluation expertise to build individual, organisational and cross sector capacity to work relationally.

Skills

• Co-production
• Participatory research
• Qualitative and visual research
• Impact evaluation
• Theories of change & outcomes measurement
• Regenerative design
• Quantitative research
• Research ethics & data management
• Content design
• User research
• Systems change

How we work

We start by listening to what communities and organisations want to know, and then design our research approach to fit.

We have a background in academia, so we understand the importance of rigorous and credible research and how to ensure change is evidence driven. We also combine practice skills in creative and inclusive methods to produce work that is accessible, useful, and grounded in lived and learnt experience.

Who we are

We're two researchers rooted in our local place of Sheffield, UK. Our practice experience spans community and academic research, international development, UK place-based practice research, and partnerships across the national charity sector at a variety of levels.

Where we work

We're rooted in Sheffield, but we work for a connected world where our commitment to being place-focused shapes how we work locally, regionally, nationally and internationally with diverse communities.

Our values