Use the science.
Help build it.
The Welfare Footprint Framework, its estimates, and its tools are built to be used independently. The framework measures welfare as the time spent in states of different intensity. The ways to engage below run from using that science to helping build it.
See how the framework applies to your work
Use the science
Apply what already exists. Everything here is public and free to use.
Use the estimates
Apply published Welfare Footprint estimates in your decisions, analyses, cost-effectiveness models, and comparisons across systems and practices.
Run your own assessment
Use the free AI tools to produce a preliminary welfare assessment of a practice, system, or reform, without commissioning anyone.
Cite the framework
Alonso, W. J., & Schuck-Paim, C. (2025). Welfare Footprint Framework: Methodological Foundations and Quantitative Assessment Guidelines. Center for Welfare Metrics (São Paulo). https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/94bxs
Introduce the concept
Bring the idea of a welfare footprint — welfare measured as time in states of defined intensity — into your own work and communication.
Learn it & build capacity
Apply it yourself. Move from using the estimates to producing them, in-house.
Learn the framework
Attend a workshop, work through the online resources, or bring a question to monthly office hours.
Get certified
Certification is planned for 2027. It will train people to apply and teach the framework independently.
Practitioner certification
Certification is planned for 2027. Register your interest to hear when applications open.
Teach & spread it
Help the next users learn it.
Teach it
Include the framework in a university course or curriculum, or in a textbook or teaching material.
Spread it
Share our prerecorded talks freely with your audience. We consider requests to take part in events case by case, and can attend a couple of in-person events a year.
Supervise research with it
Supervise or produce a thesis that uses the framework or its estimates.
Present it
Present the framework at a conference or to your own sector.
Contribute to the work
The estimates get stronger with better data, more expertise, and more scrutiny.
Contribute farm data
Producers can contribute anonymised hard metrics and conditions that strengthen the estimates, and get a welfare read on their own operation in return. (Producer data programme — in development.)
Contribute expertise
Co-author, or contribute expertise, data, or review, to a Welfare Footprint.
Tell us what to produce next
Tell us which estimates would most change your decisions. This feeds what we produce.
Tell us how you use it
Let us know how you are using the estimates, so we can improve them and what we build next.
Reproduce or critique it
Reproduce, validate, or publicly critique an analysis. The framework improves under scrutiny.
Support the roadmap
Bring the science forward faster.
Support development
Fund or co-fund the estimates, tools, and certification that let others produce welfare footprints. Support accelerates a public estimate; a supporter gains earlier availability, not a different number.
Adopt early
Design a standard, policy, product, or platform to take estimates as they are produced, and adopt them early.
Not sure where you fit?
Bring a specific question to monthly virtual office hours, or tell us how you'd like to use the estimates.