Advocacy is undermined if we do not have the evidence that we need to demonstrate that museums, libraries and archives are serious contributors to social and economic agendas. Research and data collection will underpin all of our other programmes.

For MLA West Midlands, research and development refers to a cluster of activities, with data collection at its core – the data being used to establish, develop and evaluate policies; measure impact; establish needs; measure progress; facilitate operational effectiveness; identify trends; underpin forecasting and prediction activities; support advocacy; and help the sector to secure resources.

We will:

• Explain our priorities by publishing our research position statement
• Analyse the research that we have inherited from the three pre-merger organisations, to assess its potential for re-use.
• Analyse the results of our consultation about urgent research needs, and produce a programme
• Seek partnerships to fill our data gaps
• Promote the principle that publicly funded research should be publicly available to the whole cultural sector
• Develop and publish evidence for advocacy purposes
• Develop an electronic information and data service
• Commission a labour market information study to establish the significance of our sector in the regional labour economy
• Encourage MLA nationally to undertake a study of the funding needs of our sector