Sprint – Speeding up Research
Science and policy run on different timescales. Research can take decades to influence the decisions it should inform. But the urgency of biodiversity loss and climate breakdown demands solutions now.
The Agile Initiative, based at the University of Oxford, is working to close that gap. It runs one-year ‘sprints’: solution-oriented research programmes co-created with policymakers, partners and communities, each built around a single real-world question. How can food systems be made fairer and more sustainable? Can nature help address the mental-health crisis in schools?
Agile is pioneering an effort to reframe what research can do, tackling complex environmental challenges more quickly.
Relational, rapid and rooted in justice.
Translating complexity into clarity
This film addresses a challenge many research initiatives face: explaining their mission, and why it matters, concisely enough to engage several audiences at once.
The Agile Initiative tackles some of the most challenging environmental questions in a genuinely new way. In pre-production we drew out a narrative structure, then followed with a filming approach to make that purpose easy to grasp and its importance felt.
Unscripted interviews let the people involved speak authentically, conveying their natural enthusiasm. Multiple voices are woven into a single statement of purpose. The result is a mission film that stands on its own – an encapsulation of why speeding up research matters.
