Social Change Lab was founded in 2021 by James Özden, who had spent several years on the front lines of social movements including working on the strategy team for Extinction Rebellion. Through that experience, he noticed something striking: despite social movements being historically powerful drivers of change, little rigorous empirical research existed on which strategies and tactics actually work.

Through the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program — which helps people launch high-impact nonprofits — this gap became the basis for a new organisation. Social Change Lab was incorporated in December 2021 with a simple premise: bring the same evidence-based rigour to the study of social movements that other fields take for granted, and to deepen public understanding of the role they play in social change.

Since then, we've grown into a research team publishing in the world's leading journals, quoted as expert sources by the BBC, New York Times, and PBS, partnering with academics from Stanford, Yale and NYU, and working directly with campaign groups from Green New Deal Rising to Greenpeace International.

We try to do this work with ambition and rigour, openness about our methods, and a commitment to depth over breadth — you can read more about our operating values here.