Independent Acamedic Research Studies (IARS)

IARS is a user-led and user-focused, UK-based international institute with a charitable mission to give everyone a chance to forge a safer, fairer and more inclusive society.

Led by its founder and Director, Professor Dr. Theo Gavrielides and staffed with a dedicated team of experts, interns and volunteers, IARS achieves it charitable aims by producing evidence-based solutions to current social problems, evaluating and researching social action, sharing best practice and by supporting communities to shape decision making. We help organisations to achieve change through the lived experiences of the communities they want to serve and by maximing their social impact.

We are acknowledged internationally for our expertise in justice, equality and youth, and have delivered projects in areas such as restorative justice, rehabilitation, human rights and inclusion, citizenship, public services and user-led research/ evaluation.

We also have a mission to transform young people’s lives by enabling them to have a better future, and participate equally and democratically in civic life. IARS' young people learn to inform policies and practices affecting them whether at a local, regional, national or international level. We are dedicated to helping deliver the EU Youth Strategy by "Investing and Empowering" our young people.

Our constitutional arrangements:

The IARS Articles of Association state that the charity is set up "To promote and contribute to the development and civic participation of young people, children and adult members of the community as individuals and members of society by:
Providing an infrastructure, training, guidance and support to enable them to undertake research, studies or other activities to investigate the issues which affect them and;
Encouraging, supporting and facilitating them to acquire a voice in democratic life, and use the useful results of that research and learning to increase awareness and understanding of the issues which affect them including amongst others decision makers, governments, policy makers, service providers and the public.

We deliver our charitable mission:
By carrying out action research and evaluation that is independent, credible, focused and current
By acting as a network (locally, nationally and internationally) that brings people and ideas together, communicates best practice and encourages debates on current social problems
By supporting individuals and grass roots organisations to carry out their own initiatives to shape decision-making, and by helping them to maximise their social impact
By being an authoritative, independent and evidence-based voice on current social policy matters.

We are known for our robust, independent, evidence-based approach to solving current social problems, and we are considered a pioneer in user-involvement and the application of user-led research methods.