Vertika Research
Turning Data into Direction, Evidence into Impact
📩 research@vertikafrica.org
👤 Led by Dr Prisca Simbanegavi
The Intelligence Engine of Urban Transformation
VERTIKA Research is where insight meets execution. It is the analytical brain of the VERTIKA ecosystem—translating complexity into clarity, monitoring progress with precision, and grounding every decision in rigorously sourced evidence. In a continent where urban data is often fragmented, outdated, or politically sensitive, VERTIKA Research offers a new model: integrated, real-time, policy-relevant, and spatially attuned.
This sub-brand goes far beyond baseline surveys and academic studies. It integrates housing data, spatial economics, social outcomes, and performance analytics into a continuous feedback loop that shapes every insert, city partnership, and funding model. From measuring job creation to modelling household energy footprints, it ensures VERTIKA delivers not just structures, but outcomes.
Research With a Purpose
VERTIKA Research is impact-focused and implementation-driven. It performs four core functions critical to system-wide transformation:
- Impact Measurement & Evaluation: Tracks outcomes from affordability and density to climate resilience and social cohesion.
- Urban Analytics & Modelling: Uses advanced spatial modelling and scenario planning to assess infill potential, risk zones, and infrastructure readiness.
- Knowledge Partnerships: Collaborates with universities, think tanks, and statistical agencies to co-generate evidence and train the next generation of urban practitioners.
- Policy Innovation Support: Provides data and prototypes to support zoning reform, housing policy, and land-use regulation—helping governments legislate for vertical urbanism.
Every VERTIKA insert becomes a living laboratory. Lessons from each site refine the strategy, enrich the toolkit, and shape the policy environment for what comes next.
From Pilot to Policy—and Discourse
VERTIKA Research ensures that what is learned in one district becomes knowledge for the next. It converts pilots into blueprints, dashboards into decisions, and household surveys into systems reform. Through the FutureLab partnership, it integrates findings into VERTIKA’s innovation pipeline—ensuring that solutions are not just scalable but replicable across diverse geographies and governance contexts.
In addition to data and modelling, VERTIKA Research plays a catalytic role as a thought leadership hub. It convenes high-level forums, publishes white papers, and hosts annual conferences and dialogues across the continent, amplifying the vertical housing agenda and shaping a shared urban vision. These convenings build coalitions, unlock policy traction, and position VERTIKA as a leading voice in Africa’s urban transformation.
All research outputs are open-access, and VERTIKA Research curates a living knowledge platform accessible to practitioners, policymakers, and the public alike.
Strategic Leadership
Dr Prisca Simbanegavi brings over 15 years of experience in housing research, infrastructure economics, and higher education. She holds a PhD in Real Estate, with specialised expertise in mixed-income housing systems and urban inequality. As a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, she has supervised numerous real estate and planning dissertations and contributed significantly to regional housing debates. Her work with DFIs, academic institutions, and policy advisory boards positions her to lead VERTIKA Research with scholarly depth and applied relevance.
Under her leadership, VERTIKA Research becomes the compass that ensures every vertical intervention is empirically justified, socially accountable, and globally benchmarked—while also shaping the intellectual and policy terrain for the future of African urbanism.