Research and Action for the Global Goals — Leaving No One Behind.
DATUM Research Council is an independent research organisation advancing sustainable development, climate action, equitable economic growth, and health and education for all — building the capacity of governments, institutions and communities to turn evidence into lasting impact.
An Independent Organisation for Research, Capacity & Community
DATUM Research Council is an independent research organisation. We engage in research and development on the challenges that matter most — working alongside governments, institutions and corporates, and communities to move from evidence to action.
Leaving No One Behind
A world where sustainable development, climate resilience, equitable prosperity, and access to health and education reach every person — and where rigorous evidence guides the way there.
Four Themes, One Objective
DATUM concentrates its research and development across four connected themes, all pursued under a single vision.
Our Core Operations
Every engagement runs through one or more of our core operations — from evidence to capacity to community.
Partners Across Sectors
DATUM supports a broad set of partners to address shared development objectives.
Research & Publications
Grounded in Evidence, Built to Scale
From Our Researchers
Support Research That Leaves No One Behind
DATUM Research Council works through grants, sponsorships, philanthropy, CSR funds, and donations. Partner with us to turn evidence into impact.
An Independent Voice for the Global Goals
Independent and evidence-led, DATUM Research Council exists to build capacity for the global goals — and to make sure no one is left behind.
Leaving No One Behind
A world in which sustainable development, climate action, equitable economic growth, and health and education reach every person — and where research and evidence guide the path there.
Capacity for the Global Goals
To build the capacity of leaders, managers, educators, students and communities to advance the global goals — through research and analysis, capacity building, and community development.
DATUM Research Council
DATUM Research Council is an independent think-tank focused on research and building evidence-based approaches. It has been established with the objective to build the capacity of leaders, managers, teachers, students and communities toward global goals like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The organisation engages in research and development activities on sustainable development, climate action, equitable economic development and growth, and health and education for all — working with academic institutions, governments and public bodies, industry and private-sector players, and communities to address these objectives.
DATUM is supported through:
Governance & Team
A high-impact board and advisory group guide a lean, multidisciplinary operations team.
Board & Advisors
A group of high-impact board members and advisors guide the organisation, bringing deep experience across the fields that shape sustainable development.
Operations Unit
An agile team delivers our research, capacity building, and community work day to day.
Partners & Collaborators
We collaborate across sectors — and tailor how we support each partner in reaching the global goals.
Four Themes in Service of One Objective
Our research and development concentrate on four connected themes — each with distinct sub-sectors where DATUM has built its focus and strength.
Our Core Operations
Across all four themes, our work is delivered through three connected operations.
Working on One of These Themes?
Tell us your objective — across governments, institutions, corporates or communities — and we'll shape the right research, capacity or community programme.
Talk to Our Team →Research Library
Analysis reports, policy briefs, and methodologies from our work across the global goals. Click any title to preview it as a flip-book.
Commentary & Analysis
Perspectives from our researchers on the global goals, capacity building, and development that leaves no one behind.
Events & Engagement
Workshops, convenings, and where to follow DATUM online.
Flagship Initiatives
Safe Homes — Urban Thinkers Campus
A UN-Habitat Urban Thinkers Campus convened by DATUM and MIDS in Chennai — making housing safe from both heat and flood. Working sessions, an urban lab, a data hackathon and more.
Explore the Campus →Upcoming
Follow the Conversation
Updates on our research, capacity-building programmes, and community work — as it happens.
Safe Homes
Housing that is safe from heat and safe from flood.
- MIDS, Chennai
Convened under
What is an Urban Thinkers Campus?
An initiative of UN-Habitat's World Urban Campaign, launched in 2014. It brings researchers, practitioners, community organisations and decision-makers together as equals to work through one urban problem.
Every Campus closes with agreed actions and commitments — and those outcomes feed directly into the World Urban Forum.
The same home floods and overheats
In Chennai and across the urbanising Global South, families whose homes flood in the monsoon are often the same families whose homes become unbearably hot in summer.
But heat and flooding are handled by different departments, funded from different budgets and tracked in different records. A home can get a cooler roof and still sit on a flood path.
Hosted at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, this Campus brings those separate efforts into one room and works out how to assess and fix both together.
Roofs that trap heat, little ventilation, no shade, and no thermal standard in the building code.
Homes on low-lying ground and old water paths, where drainage arrives long after the houses do.
No city can currently say which homes face both — because nobody holds the two together.
How do we make homes safe from extreme heat and flooding at the same time — and how do we measure, fund and govern that?
A durable home must be on safe ground and protect against heat and rain — criteria most countries do not yet report.
Fewer people affected by floods and heat, and stronger local capacity to adapt.
Commitments on adequate housing, resilient building codes, and disaster risk in urban planning.
The WUF13 outcome that this Campus carries forward to WUF14 in Mexico City, 2028.
Outcomes are reported to UN-Habitat and feed into the World Urban Forum.
What happens at the Campus
Working sessions, not lectures. Full programme and dates announced closer to the event.
Who is convening this
Lead organisers
Development Studies
Co-partners
Technologies
Crescent Institute
Be part of the Campus
Registration opens closer to the event. To partner, host a session or stay informed, get in touch.
Engage & Partner With DATUM
Governments, institutions, corporates, communities and funders — tell us what you're working toward and let's find the right way to collaborate.
Let's Talk
Reach out for research collaboration, capacity-building programmes, community initiatives, or to support our work.