MRS Unlimited Team

The first part of my career was spent focusing on disability sport development in London, advising various National Governing Bodies of sport, local authorities, delivery partners, and charities to enhance the inclusiveness of their projects to disabled people. Also, I project-managed high-profile projects such as 'Inclusive United' on behalf of The FA and Sport England, and a Sport England-funded 'Motivate East' project on behalf of the London Legacy Development Corporation to increase disabled people's activity levels.

Around four years' ago, I decided to switch my career to focus on what I have always wanted to do - applied / strategic research. I now work for London Sport as their Senior Insight Officer bringing together valuable strategic insights to make a tangible difference to organisations and individuals living in London, and conduct key research projects that aim to change the London population's physical activity behaviours.

Julie is an award winning researcher, experienced Insight Director and founder of Emerald Insights.

She is a firm believer that market research needs to be more inclusive of neurodiverse and disabled people. Julie has specialist knowledge across a variety of sectors allowing her to engage with a diverse group of participants including seldom heard audiences. Julie is an MRS, ICG & AQR member and an active member of the steering group at MRS Unlimited – a driving force for disability inclusive research.

Emerald Insights specialises in Qualitative & mixed methodology research, leveraging data analytics expertise and the power of AI. We collaborate with partners and work with global brands, commercial organisations, charities, NGO’s and government organisations. Emerald Insights supports innovation, refines brand positioning, conducts comprehensive communication & propositions testing, drives new product development and helps to enhance the usability of products and services for everyone.

Julie is passionate about the need for Disability Inclusion to be reflected in our research practices AND among industry professionals, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of people’s needs, identify opportunities for improvement and to make informed, strategic decisions that have real impact.

Julie is keen to use her experience to advocate for inclusive practices and seeks opportunities to develop and share knowledge in this area, to drive change!

Christine is a disability and age-inclusive inclusive researcher, designer, and innovator. She founded and leads Open Inclusion, based in the UK and operating globally. Open is a global leader in market, social, design and innovation research that includes disabled and older participants. We help our clients better understand the impacts of functional human diversity to inform better decisions and empower better solutions. We work with governments, academia, large commercial organisations, NGOs, accelerators and entrepreneurial start-ups to help them understand their target markets / audiences more broadly and completely to identify, design and deliver more valuable outcomes.

My passion for inclusive research started when I looked for support in my relationship with my brother who is autistic. Collaboarting my neurodiverse intitiative The Bridge Between on an inhouse project with d.fferentology ‘finding brands through a different lens’ explored how neurodiverse audiences interact with brands and gives insight into how brands can resonate with this at times overlooked consumer group. I am co-chair for MRS Unlimited and help share and direct knowledge for inclusive neurodiverse and disabled research. Bringing my initiative and life experience into the research world has been eye opening in understanding how necessary it is to include neurodiversity in all forms of society and research.