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A northern European state preparing for diplomatic talks with the de facto authorities of a post-conflict region.

Situation: Very little was known about the de facto authorities. The client wished to have a broader knowledge base so that its desk officers and diplomats could more effectively prepare for talks with the de facto authorities. They were aware of a private collection of hardcopy primary sources that had been generated by the de facto authorities, including newsprint, magazines, laws and decrees, and other openly published materials. The collection was held in a remote location, physically inaccessible to researchers outside the country, could not be relocated, and the texts were in multiple languages read and spoken by very few in the Ministry.

Solution: A project was designed from scratch to preserve, organise, digitise and translate the collection. Digitisation equipment was procured or built, and digitisation and translation efforts were undertaken under austere conditions, in partnership with the collection owners. Over 50000 pages were digitised, 2 million words of text were translated from three different languages into English, and local staff received and implemented training in digitisation processes. The original collection was left in the safekeeping of a custodian in the country and thereby preserved as tangible cultural heritage, and the digital collection was donated to a university library to ensure future researcher access.

Impact: The project radically increased the store of publically available primary source data on the de facto authorities. Conversion of the collection from paper to digital media prevented loss of the physical materials, and of the information contained in them. The availability of an accessible and searchable digital archive enabled better informed diplomatic engagement with the de facto authorities, and researchers have authored multiple books and articles based on the newly available source materials.

A technology start-up won government accelerator funding for an autonomous resupply vehicle project.

Situation: The project required a specialist in policy, legal, regulatory and operational research to establish deep context, justification and implications of the proposed technology.

Solution: Research was done on government policy, multi-agency logistics doctrine, standard operating procedures, and case studies of the commercial state of the art.

Impact: The final report provided the contextual detail needed to justify the project to the funding programme, trigger release of a funding tranche, and advance to next stage of research and development.

An insurer monitoring a politically unstable North African state amidst violent revolutionary upheaval.

Situation: The client required an updated understanding of political and commercial channels of influence in the area. Due to the fluid nature of the situation, it also required an expedited response, and core capability in the form of an outsourced investigative analyst who could design and undertake research in support of the in-house team.

Solution: An approach was designed and implemented. Locally produced open sources, including online, print and grey literature, were identified as containing information relevant to client requirements. Steps were then taken to acquire and collate the information, validate it, and extract relevant data points. These became the source data for network charts mapping out social, political and commercial influence networks.

Impact: The client was briefed, and a final report and data visualisation product were handed over. The client deployed the collated information and briefing materials to its in-house team, which in turn used them to increase the effectiveness of its real-time fraud detection and investigations.