The Social Laboratory Programme (SLP) is managed by the Social Futures Observatory in association with the Institute for the Advanced Study of Management and Social Sciences at Lancaster University. It is a pure research fund representing 20 organisations and is designed to undertake commercially relevant empirical research into issues of social and cultural change.
The main objectives of the SLP are:
Membership
Membership is limited to a maximum of 20 organisations. Membership requires the payment of an annual membership fee of £7,000. Topics for research are derived and voted upon by the full membership and arbitrated by the Advisory Board. The rights to the research are held jointly by the members participating during the period of the specific research project and SFO. Each member has full rights of reproduction and use subject to attribution.
Social Laboratory 2007 examined the increasing intangibility and transience of media content. Proposals for 2008's themes are being developed and will be posted here shortly.