About the Institute

Independent inquiry, rigorously pursued.

The Laubscher Institute for Research began as a small circle of researchers who believed good scholarship shouldn’t have to choose between academic rigour and public relevance. That conviction still shapes everything we publish.

2025

Founded

Kimberley

Based In

How We Began

A different kind of institute

Most research that matters doesn’t sit neatly inside a single department. A question about agricultural policy is also a question about producer livelihoods; a question about the visual arts is also a question about technology and identity. We started the Institute because we wanted a home for that kind of work — independent of any single university, political affiliation, or commercial interest.

From a small office in Kimberley, we built a model around fellowships, working groups, and open publication — structured enough to produce rigorous findings, and plain-spoken enough that the people affected by our research can actually read it.

Fieldwork in progress, supporting the Institute’s agricultural policy research.

Milestones

2025

The Institute is founded

A small group of independent researchers and practitioners establish the Laubscher Institute for Research in Kimberley, committed to interdisciplinary work outside traditional academic structures.

2025

Policy partnerships expand

Working groups begin collaborating directly with producers, educators, and practitioners, testing findings against the realities they describe before publication.

Today

A growing, independent institute

The Institute publishes across the sciences and humanities, supported by a growing network of researchers, domain experts, and practitioners united by a commitment to rigorous, independent inquiry.

What We Stand For

Independent

No university, political party, or commercial sponsor directs our conclusions. Our funding is disclosed; our findings are not for sale.

Interdisciplinary

The questions we care about rarely respect departmental boundaries, so neither do our working groups.

Rigorous

Every finding is reviewed, tested against practitioners in the field, and documented before it reaches publication.

Open

Most of what we publish is freely accessible. Research that stays behind a paywall rarely reaches the people it's about.

How We Work

Structured inquiry, plainly published

Each project begins with a working group, not a press release. Researchers, domain experts, and the practitioners closest to the question spend months developing a shared understanding before a single word is drafted for publication.

Findings are reviewed internally, tested against the people they concern, and only then released — openly, and in language built to be read by the public they serve, not just other academics.

Researchers reviewing findings together in a working group.

Our Researchers

The people who lead, review, and carry out the Institute’s research — across every active area of inquiry.

How We're Crewed

Every research institute is technically a machine for turning curiosity into evidence. We prefer to think of ours as a ship — mostly because it's more honest about who's actually working when nobody's watching. Click around.

Interested in working with us?

We welcome enquiries from researchers, collaborators, and institutions who share our interest in rigorous, independent work.

Get in Touch