Evidence-first consulting

Make sound decisions on a solid foundation.

Island Social Research & Analysis offers comprehensive research services predicated on integrity, rigour, and simplicity.

Services

What we do

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Research & Evaluation

  • Write strong grant applications
  • Formulate sound research questions
  • Develop study designs & protocols
  • Ethics & governance support (when applicable)
  • Collect reliable data
  • Program & policy evaluation planning
  • Implementation & outcome evaluation
  • KPI development & measurement frameworks
  • Clear reporting for stakeholders

Survey Design

  • Clear, concise question design
  • Scales that measure what matters
  • Reduce confusion, bias, and fatigue
  • Straightliner & low-quality response checks
  • Engagement-focused flow & completion
  • Anonymity, confidentiality, and consent language
  • Pilot testing & iteration
  • Tool selection (Qualtrics, Google Forms, etc.)

Data Analysis & Visualization

  • Data cleaning, recoding, and documentation
  • Reproducible analysis workflows
  • Statistical modelling (frequentist & Bayesian)
  • Dashboards, charts, and publication-ready figures
  • Interpretation & plain-language summaries
  • Codebooks, outputs, and handover packages

Don’t see what you’re looking for, or need a bit of everything? We customize and combine services to meet your needs. We can also work with our network to bring you solutions.

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Do you like our website? We designed and created it ourselves. We can do the same for you.

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Community

Commitment to our community

Partner with us

Our work extends beyond individual projects. We are committed to building local capacity by sharing practical, applied research skills with students and community members across Atlantic Canada.

Data analysis bootcamps

Hands-on training focused on real-world data, practical workflows, and confidence-building for applied research, evaluation, and data analysis.

  • Foundations of statistics and data analysis
  • Interpreting data, thinking critically, and applying insights to real-world contexts
  • Foundations of survey design and data collection
  • Clear, reproducible data analysis and reporting
  • Ethical and responsible collection and use of data
  • Hands-on work with real-world/locally relevant datasets and samples

Accessible & community-focused

We design training to be approachable, flexible, and immediately useful— prioritizing clarity over complexity.

  • Student- and community-friendly delivery
  • Examples from health, education, and social research
  • Take-home materials and reusable templates
  • Emphasis on independence and confidence

We are actively exploring partnerships with schools, organizations, and local groups interested in hosting or supporting community-based training.

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About

Who we are

We are a remote knowledge company with roots in the Maritimes of Canada. Our team consists of social scientists with international research and industry experience.

Clark Upton

Clark Upton

Co-Founder

Clark Upton is a sociologist and co-founder with expertise in computational social science, quantitative methods, and applied data analysis. He holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Iceland, where his thesis explored novel computational approaches for conducting social research.

Clark earned a Certificate in Computational Social Science from the Summer Institute in Reykjavik, gaining hands-on experience with network analysis, machine learning, and advanced methods for analyzing complex social data. He also holds a Google Professional Certificate in Data Analytics.

His research experience includes studies of adolescent substance use, immigration, and youth interactions with law enforcement in Nordic contexts. Clark contributed to the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker and worked on an ERC-funded project developing an agent-based model of adolescent risk behaviours with the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines, in collaboration with Reykjavik University.

His work bridges theory-driven sociology and computational modeling, with a focus on translating complex data into meaningful insights for research, policy, and applied decision-making.

Caine Meyers

Caine Meyers

Co-Founder

Caine Meyers is a research scientist and co-founder specializing in research design, program evaluation, and applied data analysis. He is currently completing a Master of Science in Research Psychology at the University of Akureyri (expected 2026), where his graduate research examines gender differences in prevalence, recognition, and underdiagnosis of neurodevelopmental conditions—including ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and dyscalculia—within Icelandic higher education.

Caine has led and contributed to international research and evaluation projects focused on adolescent health, education, and community-based substance use prevention. His work spans survey design, large-scale data collection, quantitative modeling, and stakeholder-focused reporting for academic, governmental, and community partners.

He has published peer-reviewed research across multiple domains, including adolescent well-being, public health, and burden-of-disease research, and has held a range of applied and alternative-academic roles bridging research, policy, and practice. His approach emphasizes evidence-first decision-making, methodological rigor, and translating complex findings into actionable insights for real-world contexts.

Network

Our network

When projects need extra capacity or specialized expertise, we collaborate with trusted professionals.

Dane Sheets

Dane Sheets

Expert Collaborator

Profile coming soon...

Mission & Values

Our mission

Our mission is two-fold: improve quality of life for Atlantic Canadians by supporting evidence-based decision-making, and build capacity to recruit, train, and retain Atlantic Canadians whose interests overlap with our services.

Atlantic focus

We prioritize work that strengthens communities, services, and outcomes in Atlantic Canada.

Capacity-building

We seek to develop local expertise through training, collaboration, and practical knowledge transfer.

Defensible decisions

We deliver transparent methods and clear reporting so results stand up to scrutiny.

Our values

We approach all services and collaboration with care for our values. Rigour, integrity, and simplicity ensure high-quality service and efficient collaboration.

Rigour

Integrity

Simplicity

Work

Selected work

Selected publications highlighting our range of experience and expertise. (Publications listed were not authored under the affiliation of this firm.)

2024

  • Meyers, C.C.A., Thorisdottir, I.E., Asgeirsdottir, B.B., Sigfusdottir, I.D. and Allegrante, J.P. (2025) ‘Iceland, a Canary in a Coalmine’, in Allegrante, J.P., Hoinkes, U., Schapira, M.I. and Struve, K. (eds.) Anxiety Culture: The New Global State of Human Affairs. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Upton, C.E. (2024) Simulations for sociology: An agent-based model of peer influence testing the protective effects of social capital on adolescent substance use. MSc thesis, University of Iceland, Reykjavík. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1946/46771

  • GBD 2021 Forecasting Collaborators (including Meyers, C.C.A.) (2024) ‘Forecasting the effects of smoking prevalence scenarios on years of life lost and life expectancy from 2022 to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021’, The Lancet Public Health, 9(10), pp. 729–744. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(24)00166-X.

  • Thórisson, K.R., Basílio, S., Carvalho, G., Upton, C.E., Burger, B., Guðjónsson, S., Hlynsson, K., Sigfúsdóttir, I.D., Meyers, C.C.A., Ólafsson, S. and Torrent, M.A. (2024) SocialInsight: An agent-based simulation framework for substance abuse prevention in youth — a proof-of-concept. IIIM Technical Report IIIMTR-20240401. Reykjavík, Iceland: Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines.

2023

  • Meyers, C.C.A., Mann, M.J., Thorisdottir, I.E., et al. (2023) ‘Examining the impact of a leisure time intervention on participation in organized out-of-school activities among adolescents: a quasi-experimental study in Franklin County, KY, USA’, Health Education Research, 38(4), pp. 320–328.

  • Meyers, C.C.A., Mann, M.J., Thorisdottir, I.E., et al. (2023) ‘Preliminary impact of the adoption of the Icelandic Prevention Model in Tarragona City, 2015–2019: a repeated cross-sectional study’, Frontiers in Public Health, 11.

2022

  • Cuschieri, S., Alkerwi, A., Economou, M., Idavain, J., Lai, T., Lesnik, T., Meyers, C.C.A., Samouda, H., Sigfúsdóttir, I.D., Terzic, N., Tzivian, L. and Pallari, E. (2022) ‘Conducting national burden of disease studies and knowledge translation in eight small European states: challenges and opportunities’, Health Research Policy and Systems, 20, p. 113. doi:10.1186/s12961-022-00923-1.

2021

  • Halldorsdottir, T., Thorisdottir, I.E., Meyers, C.C.A., et al. (2021) ‘Adolescent well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic: are girls struggling more than boys?’, JCPP Advances, 1(2). doi:10.1002/jcv2.12027.

Dashboard concept

A modern and stakeholder friendly view of your data

This is a concept dashboard that can be expanded and customized to your needs. Metrics and charts show example structure. We will replace labels and values with your data.

Coverage / sample
your metric
Your data here

e.g., n, sites, schools, departments, cases, waves

Participation / uptake
your metric
Your data here

e.g., response rate, utilization, retention, completion

Quality / risk
your metric
Your data here

e.g., missingness, red flags, incidents, SLA breaches

Outcome index
your metric
Your data here

e.g., wellbeing, satisfaction, engagement, service outcome

Trend over time

Your data here — track an indicator across weeks/months/quarters

Composition

Your data here — population mix, segments, departments, regions

By group / category

Your data here — comparisons by group, program, team, service line

Contact

Contact us let’s build something solid

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