On 11 October 2016 the JALLC hosted a seminar on “Research Methods in Defence” in cooperation with the London-based think tank: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). The seminar was conducted by two researchers from RUSI: Professor John Louth and Dr Lauren Twort at the JALLC’s facilities in Lisbon, Portugal.

During the seminar RUSI's Professor Louth showed the audience how a fully-integrated research programme for a research question—defined in cooperation with the audience—could be developed. A broad range of topics regarding ways and means to approach defence research were then covered by the RUSI speakers during the seminar including the integration of project management and research methodologies, the application of qualitative and quantitative methods, the embedding of stakeholder management, and the assessment of value and impact, and RUSI's best practices in analysis and policy advice were also shared with the audience.

The seminar forms part of the RUSI-JALLC partnership framework agreed in May 2016, which includes a workshop covering JALLC project themes, two lectures on contemporary, strategic-level defence and security topics, and a major corporate RUSI membership for the JALLC. Not only JALLC civilian and military staff members attended the seminar, but also participants from the Portuguese defence community.

Commenting on the successful delivery of the Research Method in Defence seminar, the JALLC's Commander, Brigadier General Mário Barreto (Portuguese Airforce) stated:

“The seminar has provided the participants with valuable insights into the best-practices of defence analysis and policy advice as applied by one of the world’s most recognized think tanks. It allowed the participants to critically reflect on their own approaches to defence analysis and policy advice and offered important food for thought how to improve them.”