Ipsos MORI Launches Engagement Centre

Ipsos MORI has announced the launch of a Qualitative Research and Engagement Centre, bringing together its qual methods team, dialogue and engagement specialists and led by Director Michelle Mackie. The Centre will aim to 'bring the public voice into policy making'.

The launch builds on recent work such as Oxford's Climate Change Citizens' Assembly; qual research and digital ethnography for the Centre for Ageing Better, exploring the experiences of people approaching later life; and the impacts of COVID-19 and lockdown. The Centre will combine traditional qualitative and engagement approaches with 'cutting-edge innovation in this space'.

Mackie (pictured) has worked in social research for almost two decades, having joined the company from NatCen in 2015. At Ipsos MORI her work has included studies for NHS Blood and Transplant, informing the implementation of the move to opt-out for organ donation. For the past two years she has headed the Public Dialogue Centre, managing some of the company's largest dialogue and deliberative engagement studies to date.

Kelly Beaver, MD of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute, says the division has a long tradition of being at the forefront of qualitative research methods and techniques. She comments: 'Over the last 50 years our experienced teams have delivered some of the most complex, demanding and high-profile assignments which utilise qualitative methods to help policy makers build public engagement and a true understanding of how policies and public services are working for citizens. Bringing together our Qualitative Research Team and our Public Dialogue Centre is an important milestone in the continued evolution of our capabilities in this area and I am thrilled that Michelle will be leading our new Qualitative Research and Engagement Centre'.

Mackie says the new Centre will deliver 'high quality, impactful and ethical research and engagement that puts understanding people's lived experiences - through rigorous and inclusive processes - at the heart of what we do'.

Home page: www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk .