2024 young researcher of the year – supplier: Taiye Akin-Akinyosoye and Laura Gafforio
Taiye Akin-Akinyosoye, Truth Consulting
Akin-Akinyosoye is senior consultant at Truth Consulting and started her insight career two-and-a-half years ago at the age of 29. She is a mother to two young boys with autism, who she credits with helping drive her passion for putting the voice of all people at the heart of business strategy.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) is where Akin-Akinyosoye has made her biggest mark, being a DEI representative at Truth and responsible for helping to develop the company’s inclusive research guidelines.
The guidelines look at every aspect of Truth’s working behaviours, including colleague recruitment, participant management and how staff show up in meetings.
Akin-Akinyosoye is also committed to working with platform and recruitment partners as well as clients on DEI and suppliers.
In addition, Akin-Akinyosoye has played a leading role on projects, such as researching the digitally excluded for Barclays.
The Barclays project focused on exploring the digital needs of neurodiverse individuals and the role the bank could play in supporting them, and Akin-Akinyosoye designed an ethnographic study, incorporating inclusion practices such as using a simple platform, personalised methods to cater for a variety of abilities, with the option of phone calls for those unable to go online.
Akin-Akinyosoye also advocated for considerate timelines in the project and was on hand to support participants throughout the process.
A key area of development for Akin-Akinyosoye over the past 12 months was her presenting skills, which saw her attend AQR training, which has given her the skills and confidence to develop her own style and voice.
A keen interest in semiotics is also a crucial part of Akin-Akinyosoye’s toolkit, and she recently undertook training in order to lead semiotic analysis on a news project for the BBC, including using visual signifiers to understand unspoken needs in news consumption.
Akin-Akinyosoye said: “I am deeply honoured to receive this prestigious award. It’s a testament to the power of working with a dedicated and supportive team, proving that it’s possible to juggle multiple responsibilities as a mum and still achieve success. This recognition means so much to me, as it highlights the importance of my commitment to amplifying voices.
“A heartfelt thank you to Research Live and MRS for celebrating young talent. The shortlist itself reflects the incredible young talent in our industry, and I’m excited to see how we all continue to push boundaries and drive meaningful change. I’m always looking for my next challenge and this award is the boost I need for my future steps.”
Laura Gafforio, The Good Side
Gafforio is research manager and edit producer at The Good Side, working in the research team and creative studio.
Prior to working in insight, she lived across Europe studying social sciences, experimenting with film-making and learning languages, until realising she wanted to take her curiosity about the human experience further.
Over the last two years, Gafforio has developed her research skills, and with a focus on learning how to gather and analyse stories.
In a project understanding teen creativity for a social media firm, Gafforio flew with a colleague to the US for three days, moderated focus groups with a continuously changing brief, managed a team of 10 clients and in two days delivered a deck bringing teens’ experiences to life.
In this case, the stories helped to deliver the company’s brand strategy, gaining exceptional feedback from the client.
In the creative studio, Gafforio helps to create films that capture participants’ experiences, and communicate insights and strategy.
While working with a major tech brand to understand Saudi youth culture, after completing cultural landscaping and qualitative work, Gafforio created the vision for a film. Having immersed herself in Saudi cultural references and aesthetics, she worked with two local filmmakers to ensure sensitivity and authenticity.
Gafforio managed conversations with clients throughout to make sure the insight story was told accurately, staying true to participants’ lived experiences and bringing cultural nuances to life, with her work ultimately delivering an intimate understanding of a much-misunderstood culture and people, laying the foundations for future strategy.
In addition, Gafforio runs The Good Side’s monthly ‘Culture Club’, where attendees discuss interesting topics they’ve seen in culture and their implications for the company’s work.
Having designed the session format, Gafforio coaches team members – both junior and more senior – on how to find a topic, present it and get the most out of a conversation.
Gafforio is currently self-shooting a documentary about what it means to be an artist in London, and completing a documentary film-making course.
She also volunteers for The Present, an organisation where experts and local charities are brought together on stage to co-design solutions to an issue the charity is facing. As well as organising the day, Gafforio shoots footage of the events.
Gafforio said: “It was such an interesting experience for me as a young researcher to spend the evening with the industry and see all these talented people be awarded for their work.
“It was so lovely to spend some time with my amazing colleagues and friends and celebrate our work.”

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