THE INSTITUTE · ARC RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

Making Research Accessible

Too much of Asia's diversity goes unmeasured, and too many communities go unseen. ARC exists to close that gap, mapping the state of inclusion across the region, amplifying overlooked voices, and helping organisations understand the full diversity present in their workforces, client bases, and communities.

ACTIVE PROGRAMMES

The programmes shaping Asia's emerging evidence base

Each programme follows the four-method research model.
All findings are peer-reviewed, independently validated, and openly published under the Institute's open-citation policy.

ACTIVE PROGRAMME 1

Public Baseline Initiative

The Public Baseline Initiative is a longitudinal research programme tracking workforce inclusion indicators across Hong Kong from 1970 to 2025. It is the first project to build a comprehensive, multi-dimensional evidence base for inclusion and social inequality in Hong Kong within a single integrated framework over time.

WHAT IT TRACKS
Women’s labour force participation

Rates, sector distribution, and seniority levels.

Disability employment

Rates, legislative frameworks, and employer practice.

LGBTQ+ policy

Workplace protection adoption and enforcement.

Ethnic minority representation

Professional workforce and leadership pipelines.

AT A GLANCE
STATUS

Active. Data collection and analysis in progress.

MARKET COVERED

Hong Kong

TIME SPAN

1970 – 2025 · 50 years

COMPARATIVE DATA

United Kingdom, United States, EU

INITIAL FINDINGS

2026 - 2027

ACTIVE PROGRAMME 2

Mapping the Gaps

What workplace inclusion reporting is failing to capture.

Where Programme 1 maps what the data shows, Programme 2 examines what the data has ommited. Across LGBTQ+ experience, ethnic minority representation, and disability inclusion, reporting in Asia remains inconsistent, fragmented, and often absent entirely. Legislative frameworks exist in some markets; enforcement, measurement, and transparency lag far behind.

This programme produces the first structured gap analysis of inclusion reporting across Asia: identifying which dimensions are systematically underreported, how policy and legal frameworks have evolved over time, and where the most critical evidence gaps remain. The aim is not to document failure but to establish, with rigour, the true state of inclusion across the region, the full picture, not the measurable fraction of it.

The programme is structured under the principle of Universal Design: an approach to inclusion that benefits everyone, rather than targeting specific groups in isolation.

AT A GLANCE
STATUS

Active. Conceptual framework in development.

MARKET COVERED

Asia

DIMENSIONS

LGBTQ+, ethnic minority, disability inclusion

METHOD

Structured gap analysis

GUIDING PRINCIPLE

Universal Design

FOR ORGANISATIONAL SPONSORSHIP

Corporate Research Programmes

In addition to our public research programmes, ARC adds two ongoing corporate research initiatives, open for organisational sponsorship and participation.

PROGRAMME A
Multigenerational Inclusion in Asian Workplaces

Asia is experiencing one of the most significant generational shifts in its workforce in decades. This programme examines how organisations can build cultures that work across generational difference, drawing on both quantitative workforce data and qualitative research with employees across the region.

PROGRAMME B
AI and the Future of Work in Asia

Built from the ground up through primary fieldwork and civil society partnerships across ten Asian markets. We don't adapt Western frameworks, we develop ones grounded in Asia's lived realities.

THE STUDIO

Apply these findings in your organisation

ARC's Studio translates research findings into commissioned work — strategy, briefings, and implementation grounded in the Institute's evidence base.

Built for organisations
ready to lead