Ipsos launches new Qualitative Research and Engagement Centre in the UK, under Michelle Mackie

Ipsos, a market leader in offering qualitative research, dialogue and deliberative engagement services, launches its new Qualitative Research and Engagement Centre. The new centre will bring together Ipsos’s qualitative methods team, alongside dialogue and engagement specialists, to specialise in bringing the public voice into policy making. The experienced team will build upon the great work the organisation has done in this area to date, including Oxford’s Climate Change Citizens’ Assembly, and qualitative research and digital ethnography for the Centre for Ageing Better, exploring the experiences of people approaching later life, and the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown.

The Centre will be led by director Michelle Mackie. Michelle will use her extensive experience in social research to drive the development of the centre and to ensure that the company’s qualitative and engagement work continues to provide our clients with innovative, robust insight they need to make people centred change. The centre will continue to provide a mix of traditional qualitative and engagement approaches, alongside cutting-edge innovation in this space. 

About Michelle

Michelle has worked in social research for almost two decades. Since joining Ipsos, from NatCen, in 2015, Michelle has led a range of impactful qualitative research including for NHS Blood and Transplant, informing the implementation of the move to opt-out for organ donation – a change that has had a life changing impact for those needing organ transplants. For the past two years, Michelle has headed the Public Dialogue Centre where she has overseen the delivery of some of our largest dialogue and deliberative engagement studies to date including the OneLondon health and care data Citizens’ Summit and a dialogue and deliberation for NHS England and Improvement (London Region) to inform future decision-making relating to the response to the pandemic. 

Kelly Beaver, Managing Director of Ipsos Social Research Institute, said: 

Ipsos’s Social Research Institute has a long tradition of being at the forefront of qualitative research methods and techniques. 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. She has an impressive track record and is a leading expert in her field. 

Michelle Mackie, Director, said: 

I am excited to have the opportunity to take our qualitative research and engagement business to the next level. I will look forward to working with the new team to 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.

Ipsos has a formal deliberative engagement partnership with Imperial College Health Partners, supporting the health and social care sector to engage and involve patients and the public in decision making by exploring their expectations in relation to complex dilemmas and associated trade-offs.