About Kiaer Research
For us, research and evaluation are about uncovering insights with curiosity, rigor, and creativity.
Our Team
Nathan Browning | Founder and Principal
M.A. in Evaluation, Measurement, and Research
A determined experimenter since infancy, Nathan now has 6+ years of experience conducting applied research and evaluation in settings such as higher education, healthcare, hospitality, marketing, and other industries. He has guest lectured on topics such as anthropology, marketing, sociology, and statistics. Outside of researching, he loves playing disc golf at local courses, camping in Michigan’s beautiful state parks, and cooking delicious vegetarian grub.
Nathan is a proud member of several professional research organizations: the American Evaluation Association (AEA), the American Association for Public Opinion Researchers (AAPOR), and the Insights Association (IA).
Our Purpose
Kiaer was originally formed out of a desire to solve a dire issue in the research industry: Americans are simply no longer answering phone surveys. This means that the costs of doing high-quality research have skyrocketed and the accuracy of the research is now in question.
Our ultimate goal is to provide rigorous and actionable research and evaluation services at an affordable cost.
We most prefer working with clients or products that are working toward a better world, whether through improving health outcomes, advancing equity for underrepresented populations, strengthening civil liberties, combating climate change, supporting local economies and workforces, or through educating those that want to learn.
Our Standards
We hold ourselves to high ethical and methodological standards. We adhere to both the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Code of Ethics as well as the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) Guiding Principles for Evaluators. The principles included in these documents include equity, competence, accountability, transparency, and integrity.
To demonstrate our commitment to rigor, transparency, and accuracy, Kiaer Research will submit our first two public opinion surveys to the AAPOR Transparency Initiative to become a member organization. We believe that clear and honest methods make for strong and accurate insights.
Our Origin
Kiaer Research is a proud 2019-2020 cohort alum of Western Michigan University’s Starting Gate, a university-based startup accelerator that provides student entrepreneurs with the mentorship, resources, and guidance to successfully launch their business. In 2020-2021, Nathan Browning served as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Starting Gate, providing advice and guidance to the next cohort of entrepreneurs from WMU.
Through Starting Gate, Kiaer Research was awarded grant money from the National Science Foundation and from WMU to research new methods in survey research.
The name “Kiaer” was inspired by Anders Nicolai Kiaer, a Norwegian statistical pioneer of the 1800s who was the first to implement representative survey sampling.