Young researcher of the year: James Crouch and Momo Amjad

James Crouch, Opinium (pictured, far left)

Crouch is part of Opinium’s social and political team and head of its omnibus which saw more than 20% growth last year. He joined the agency in 2013 as an intern and just five years later was made an equity partner, recognising his work at the agency.

One standout in his career was identifying a lack of research into how different communities live and work together so – collaborating with senior politicians and policy makers – he developed and conducted extensive qual and quant research resulting in Opinium’s Multicultural Britain report. The report is now in its third edition.

He has also developed the global entrepreneurial index with the social enterprise charity Mara Foundation.

Crouch is an ambassador for market research internally and externally – he delivers internal training sessions and career manages two research executives and externally has appeared on the Polling Matters podcast as well as radio and TV shows and presented at political party conferences.

James Endersby, CEO, Opinium said: “He did it, of course he did! In just over five dizzy years James has risen from bright intern to senior researcher, head of omnibus, life-and-soul of our agency and recently, equity partner of Opinium. Winning Young Researcher of the Year means so much to him personally (our whole agency too) and puts the cherry on the top of an amazing career start. His collaborative, creative, fun and innovative approach to his work is loved by his clients and inspires all of his colleagues.”

Momo Amjad, Bamm (pictured, second from left)

Amjad has established a niche in translating attitudes, skills and ideas from innovation and social justice into the insight space.

She joined Bamm in 2017 having previously worked at Flamingo-owned Kiosk and Chayn, a social enterprise supporting women facing domestic violence.

In less than two years, she’s been promoted to research manager. Amjad’s passion is pushing diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the market research industry. To this end she has led Bamm’s The Diversity research project exploring BAME youths and why they don’t want to enter creative industries; set up an internship scheme supporting people from refugee backgrounds to enter the industry; and helped push for Bamm’s first official diversity policy. 

Nathalie Gil, insight director at Bamm, said: “It was a no brainer to nominate Momo for the Young Researcher of the Year awards this year. Momo has been a star talent at Bamm, and offers fresh perspective and a strong voice that leaves a legacy for diversity and inclusivity – not only internally at Bamm, but also within the insight industry and beyond. We are all immensely proud of Momo, and we are chuffed to have been Momo’s platform of choice to turn an ambitious vision and breakthrough ideas into fruition.”