UMRAN works through a collaborative network of associate experts alongside a lean management and administration function. Together, they allow us to assemble teams that are methodologically strong, contextually grounded, and operationally dependable.
Our senior associates bring research, evaluation, education, and translation expertise. We mobilise this network according to the demands of each assignment: sectoral depth, methodological craft, safeguarding sensitivity, and the linguistic fluency required for meaningful inquiry.
Applied social science, children’s rights, and policy research
Mohammed is based at the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies. His work examines children’s rights, child labour and education, humanitarian child protection, and the lives of Palestinian children — including neglect in displacement settings, early childhood in contexts of violence, and childhood under detention.
Inclusive education, humanitarian research, and Arabic–English knowledge work
Ayman is a researcher and writer from Gaza whose work sits at the intersection of education policy, humanitarian response, and public communication. He has written on inclusive education policy in the SWANA region and on the right to health in Gaza during COVID-19, and brings Arabic–English fluency to research, translation, and field-facing inquiry.
Children’s rights, detention, and qualitative social research
Valentina works on children’s rights and the political lives of children under constraint. She co-authored Childhood behind Bars, on Palestinian children in Israeli detention, in Lived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children (University of Georgia Press, 2024), contributing qualitative analysis of childhood, justice systems, and lived resistance.
Behind every assignment is a practical management layer that holds the work together. This includes leadership, administration, finance, compliance, and client stewardship, ensuring projects move with clarity from scoping through delivery.
Portfolio direction, partnerships, and senior quality oversight
The management function steers the overall research agenda, shapes institutional partnerships, and ensures each assignment remains aligned with UMRAN’s standards of rigour and dignity.
Assignment coordination, scheduling, logistics, and delivery support
Operational management keeps projects moving across timelines, teams, and geographies, coordinating briefs, deliverables, logistics, and the administrative rhythms of delivery.
Budgets, due diligence, contracting, and organisational controls
This function supports responsible procurement, financial planning, contractual clarity, and the compliance measures expected by public, academic, and multilateral clients.
Scoping conversations, onboarding, and relationship continuity
Client-facing management helps translate an initial enquiry into a clear assignment pathway, assembling the right blend of associate expertise, practical support, and communication.
We do not force a fixed hierarchy onto every commission. Instead, we build the right team around the work: a suitable mix of thematic specialists, field-based capability, operational coordination, and clear client communication.
Expertise is selected according to the question at hand, whether that requires advanced qualitative work, policy analysis, safeguarding depth, or multilingual field capability.
Management and administration provide cadence, governance, and delivery discipline so specialist associates can focus on substance without losing coherence or accountability.
We aim for teams that can engage institutions and communities with sensitivity, honesty, and continuity, not just technical competence.