Established in 2018, our Centre for Operational Research and Experience (CORE) straddles the academic/policy/practitioner divide, ensuring that research is ethical, rigorous and feeds directly into operational decision-making.
Operational research creates new knowledge and/or uses existing knowledge to generate new concepts, methodologies, and understandings that contribute to evidence-based decision making and advancing the ICRC's operational priorities. It consists of a systematic inquiry that combines scientific research methods with operational experience and needs.
The CORE has two main research streams. The first focuses on understanding the behaviour of armed entities and how to influence them to act in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law. The second focuses on ethical questions faced in trying to alleviate the suffering of those affected by armed conflicts while minimizing the unintended negative consequences of aid.
All research undertaken by or on behalf of the ICRC must receive approval from the ICRC’s Ethics Review Board (ERB) for research. The ERB ensures that risks to research participants, researchers and the ICRC’s reputation are mitigated or minimized before research starts.
