As part of our Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system and in line with the RSPO's Theory of Change, research serves as an important avenue for us to gain insights into the impacts of RSPO’s work. It not only helps to generate evidence of our impacts, but also helps to fill our knowledge gaps and capture the lessons learned, which can then be applied to our current work, challenges and future initiatives. This is crucial for us to drive continuous improvement of our standards for the benefit of all our stakeholders.
In this section, you will be able to find information relating to the key research priorities of RSPO as well as the latest evidences on the impacts of RSPO.
Key Research Priorities
In 2018, the RSPO Secretariat released a Research Agenda, which detailed a list of priority research questions for RSPO, in an effort to help focus, inform, and coordinate our research work to test and validate our Theory of Change (ToC). While there has been an increase in the amount of research on RSPO and its impacts throughout the years, the existing evidence remains limited and/or highly debated.
We recognise this shortcoming and in an effort to address the knowledge gaps on the impacts of RSPO certification, we engaged with internal and external stakeholders in late 2018 through a research survey, to determine the priority research questions for RSPO to focus on in 2019/2020. With the research survey results now at hand, we are calling for Research Tenders on the following key research priorities as identified in the matrix above.
Aside from the identified topics in the Research Tender, we also continue to encourage researchers to take up the other key research questions that are listed in the RSPO Research Agenda. For more information on the RSPO Research Agenda and Research Survey Results, please download the documents below.
Contact Us
If you have questions or comments about the RSPO's research work, please contact our Research and Advisory Manager.
More on Research at RSPO
Research Agenda
Research Request
Research Library
Interested in conducting research on RSPO? Submit your request below
Research Request
Learn about research outcomes and impacts of RSPO certification below
Research Library
Explore comparisons carried out on palm oil sustainability standards below
Benchmark Reports
