The research project model: brokering connections with universities for a future-ready UN

“I recently reviewed the final deliverables of the capstone project in detail and was genuinely impressed by the quality of the work. The students’ research was rigorous, well structured, highly relevant to UN Tourism's priorities, and demonstrated a remarkable level of professionalism and commitment.” – Javier González-Lliberós Vilarrasa, UN Tourism (capstone project partner in the context of IE University’ Master in International Development)

What does a research project offer a United Nations (UN) team? In short, it provides a practical path to bring fresh analysis into real operational and policy questions. Delivered through structured academic partnerships, these projects are time-bound, focused and designed to produce outputs teams can use.

Drawing on its convening role across the UN system and its growing network of academic partners, UNSSC helps turn operational and policy needs into structured academic engagements with clear outputs and timelines. The result is an applied analysis that helps the UN and the wider multilateral system better serve Member States in addressing peace and sustainable development challenges through policies and institutional frameworks.

Research projects: a perfect fit for a more innovative UN 

UN colleagues need to adapt to the changes in the multilateral system, implement the changes brought by UN Reform and accelerate efforts in support of member states as they strive to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Against this backdrop, research projects provide timely analysis that can be quickly absorbed into real decision cycles. They also align closely with the Pact for the Future’s emphasis on strengthening partnerships across society, including the scientific and academic communities. 

In practice, they offer a structured way to engage emerging talent in real UN challenges and support future preparedness by translating learning into actionable outputs. A research project is a structured, time-bound piece of applied work. Instead of a traditional thesis, individuals or a small team of students work on a real challenge through a consultancy-style process, producing practical deliverables. For UN entities, this means focused support on a concrete question. 

Considering that the work is scoped around partner needs and delivered in a consistent format, outputs can support internal reflection, programme design, and decision-making processes. This model also brings fresh eyes to established procedures, helping surface assumptions and widen the range of options under consideration. For example, recent projects developed as part of the Master in International Development (MID) – an academic programme created in collaboration between UNSSC and IE University – show the range of UN priorities this model supports, going from the analysis of humanitarian and development interventions to the development of playbooks to better understand AI in learning. 

At a time when demands for applied analysis, faster learning cycles, and cross-sector collaboration are increasing, research projects provide a structured format that supports both immediate delivery needs and longer-term capability development for the future UN. 

From a UN need to an academic output: how the capstone process works 

Research projects add the most value when they are tightly scoped, operationally relevant, and easy to absorb. This is why UNSSC’s role as a broker is crucial. It is about bringing together the right partners and structuring the engagement, so the work is useful to teams. 

Life cycle of a research project 

1. The start is a concrete question. A UN entity brings forward a policy, operational challenge, a need for insights based on past practice or the state of the art of research in a particular area where timely analysis is needed. The best questions are specific enough to guide research but open enough to allow exploration, often around trade-offs, implementation considerations, or how to improve ongoing initiatives. 
2. Scoping the need and define what “useful” looks like. UNSSC works with the requesting UN counterpart to clarify the context of the request: who will use the output, in what format, and under what constraints. This keeps the work anchored in real decision processes, rather than producing analysis that is interesting but hard to apply. 
3. Matching UN demand with academic supply. UNSSC brokers the collaboration with an academic partner and a student or team (of typically two to four students) from one of its partner universities, aligning expectations on timing, supervision and outputs. 
4. Delivery through a structured, consultancy-style engagement. Students work against agreed milestones and produce practical deliverables tailored to the partners’ needs. This often includes a literature review, final report, and a presentation followed by a Q&A. 

The process is repeatable to maximize system value. UNSSC is the UN’s trusted interagency learning partner, delivering smart, scalable, participatory and effective solutions that support transformative change. The Staff College offers a reliable pathway for engaging academic partners, so each entity does not need to rebuild the approach independently. 

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Research projects are a scalable and innovative way to bring novel analysis into real-world challenges, while keeping the work bounded, practical, and output oriented. They support faster learning cycles and more coherent ways of working aligned with the broader push for the UN to take an expansive variety of perspectives into account. 

Beyond their value to the UN system and its service to Member States, research projects strengthen practice-based learning for academic institutions by helping them keep curricula connected to real operational questions. For students, they offer consultancy-style experiences working on a real scenario with partners from the multilateral system, providing valuable experience and a deeper understanding of how they operate. 

UNSSC will continue to respond to rising demand and broker collaborations that are practical for UN entities and partnering organisations. If your team has a concrete operational or policy need that could benefit from this model of collaboration, reach out to UNSSC’s Academic Partnerships team via email at academicpartnerships@unssc.org to explore opportunities.