ADIA and ESOMAR Foundation announce Research Got Talent award winners

The Australian Data and Insights Association (ADIA) and the global ESOMAR Foundation has announced the Australian winners of the Research Got Talent award.

The Research Got Talent (RGT) competition encourages young professionals to use market research and insights to support local charities and NGOs to overcome pressing social issues.

This year's winners are Roger Kong and Marissa Tsioutsis from Fiftyfive5 for their entry Supporting the Vision to Free Australia from Youth Homelessness in association with For Change Co., which is a social enterprise that provides tools to empower young people to create their own pathway out of homelessness.

The research projects in the RGT competition aim to assist change in various areas, including gender inequality, access to justice and education, integration and diversity, environmental issues, and climate change.

The young researchers were required to submit a project proposal about the problem facing the charity/ NGO and how they would conduct research to assist it in overcoming this issue. Entries were required to reflect a relevant, innovative, and impactful research design project that assesses the organisation's specific issue.

Kong and Tsioutsis will now complete the project with For Change Co. to enter their final report as Australia's entry into the ADIA and ESOMAR's global competition. Winners from each region (participating in the worldwide competition) will present their work to an international audience at the ESOMAR Congress in September.

Pictured left to right: Tsioutsis and Kong

Sally Joubert, ESOMAR representative and RGT judge, said: "This is now the third year of the Australian competition, and we continue to be blown away with the calibre of entries. All of the entrants showed a strong commitment to 'Research For Good' and the range of projects was inspirational.

"We found it incredibly difficult to select a winner; however, Roger and Marissa’s project stood out. It was professionally presented, well thought out and they demonstrated a strong desire for For Change Co. to make a real difference to help youth homelessness.

"We look forward to seeing the results of the project and importantly, the impact it will have both here and for other initiatives globally," she added.

Kong and Tsioutsis said: "We are so excited and honoured to have been selected as the Research Got Talent winners for 2022. We have been close friends since 2015 and this is such a wonderful way to showcase our passion and growth in the industry over the years.

"This also means a great deal to our not-for-profit organisation of choice, For Change Co. We want to help them achieve their vision of an Australia free from youth homelessness, and truly believe that this behaviour change project can make a significant difference not just in Australia but globally for other social enterprises. The competition was tough, and we congratulate all the finalists."

The judges for Australia's Research Got Talent Award competition included: Katie Ferro, CEO, Stable Research; Stavros Koufos, GM, QOR; Stacie Haber, head of strategy & performance, Australian Red Cross; Sally Joubert, CEO, Luma Research; Lisa Lewers, CEO, Lewers; Caroline Tomiczek, director, Urbis; and Lucas Wan, sales director, Giftpay.

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Top image left to right: Marissa Tsioutsis and Roger Kong