As Spirit of 2012 prepares to close its doors on 30 January, after twelve years of funding and exploring how to achieve the greatest social impact from major events, we are pleased to introduce our Areas of Research Interest (ARIs). The ARIs outline priority questions about how events can deliver lasting benefits for people and communities across the UK—questions that remain highly relevant as expectations of social impact continue to grow.

What are Areas of Research Interest (ARIs)?
ARIs are sets of priority questions that highlight where further research, evaluation, or methodological development could make a valuable contribution. Rather than prescribing answers, ARIs are intended to stimulate enquiry, collaboration, and learning across policy, practice, and academia. By publishing these ARIs, we aim to guide new research into events, address knowledge gaps in policy and practice, and inspire collective action to maximise the social legacy of events across the UK and beyond.

Our ARIs

When we began our journey in 2013, social impact was often the “Cinderella” of the case for hosting major events, overshadowed by economic arguments. Today, social impact is much more firmly embedded in how events are conceived, funded, and delivered. Spirit of 2012 has contributed to this shift by building evidence about what works, for whom, and in what contexts. At the same time, our work has consistently highlighted gaps in understanding that still need to be addressed.

The ARIs are shaped by our impact priorities—wellbeing, inclusion, and social cohesion—and by our commitment to ensuring that the benefits of events are felt across the whole of the UK. They are also grounded in our learning about how the events ecosystem can function more effectively to generate social value, as reflected in the Power of Events Inquiry recommendations. Together, they point to areas where further research, evaluation, and methodological development could strengthen practice and decision-making long after Spirit of 2012 has closed.

We invite funders, commissioners, event organisers, evaluation teams, researchers, and academics to use these ARIs as a foundation for shaping future research programmes, designing evaluations, and addressing the most important unanswered questions in the field. The Spirit of 2012 Knowledge Bank offers a starting point for evidence and learning on many of these topics. By embedding these ARIs into your work and collaborating across the sector, you can help ensure that events continue to generate meaningful and lasting social value—well beyond Spirit of 2012’s lifetime.

Download Now