“Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service is to detect it in embryo” Isaac Asimov, Foundation, 1951.

SV research investigation explores organisational technical, natural and social processes and how they interact.

SV Applied Research focuses on ‘problem solving’. Typically the research is broken down into a number of separate but interdependent components:

1. Identification of problems
2. Diagnosis of causes
3. Identification of potential solutions
4. Action plan
5. Monitor and evaluate action and outcomes

Thus, from the agreed scope of the research we will provide:

• A description of how things are with base line data if applicable.
• An explanation as to why things are the way they are.
• Models that predict how systems will change under alternative scenarios.
• Planning and decision-making that will relate to the changes of fresh systems.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the effects of changes both during and after they have been made. It follows will compare the outcomes with predictions and base line.