Turn Ambition into Broker Trust. Delivery
I help universities, public authorities, civil society and community partners turn fragmented evidence and policy ambitions into real-world impact, building the partnerships and systems that drive sustainable change.
Hi there! I’m Michelle Reeves, Founder and Director of Michelle Reeves Consulting. I help universities, government and civic partners turn ambitious strategies, research and partnerships into systems that actually deliver.
I know first‑hand how frustrating it is when:
- policymakers can’t find the right academic expertise at the right moment
- brilliant research sits unused because no one built the bridge to policy
- cross‑sector partnerships flounder on mistrust and misaligned goals
- stakeholders work hard in isolation, and delivery falls short for want of joined‑up working
When I set up this consultancy, my research told me what you did not want: a transactional consultant offering generic, off‑the‑shelf solutions. You needed a hybrid, part policy leader, convenor, critical friend and knowledge mobiliser, fluent in academic research and public‑sector delivery, skilled at bringing people together across sectors and disciplines.
After thirty years working inside public policy, university, and civil society systems, I now work independently alongside the people responsible for delivery - bringing practical challenge, honest diagnosis, and structure to the space between ambition and action: clarifying the problem, designing the right operating system, and aligning the people who need to act. I work collaboratively as your partner, listening first and co‑producing solutions that are flexible, modular, and tailored to your needs and budget.
Work with me and you gain clarity you can act on, credible leadership from someone who understands your world, impact you can prove, and partnerships built on trust.
Core areas I help with:
- Qualitative research, conducted or commissioned
- Policy, strategy and mission development
- Academic‑policy engagement and knowledge brokerage
- Project and programme delivery
- Civic and innovation partnerships
- Setting up mayoral development corporations and governance structures
- Evaluation and impact assessment
The questions I get asked most
Turning strategy into deliverable policy
How do we turn our strategic priorities into policies, missions and programmes that actually work, and know what works, for whom, and in what circumstances?
Building the right partnerships and governance
How do we get the right stakeholders around the table, secure genuine buy‑in, and design governance that enables decisions rather than stalling them?
Evidence, evaluation and demonstrable impact
What evidence already exists, how do we evaluate what we are doing, and how do we prove the impact to funders, government and the public?
Making change stick
How do we embed this so it survives beyond one project, one funding round, or one person leaving the organisation?
My Story
Insider by Experience, Independent by Practice
I grew up to the soundtrack of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ and Bob Marley’s ‘Get Up, Stand Up’, raised by parents determined that their children would be socially conscious, find their voice, and know their worth. Evenings spent learning about everything from the solar system to the struggle for women’s equality gave me a lifelong love of learning.
At university, that curiosity became a passion for policy through international development activism in solidarity with the Global South. I came to see that the global struggles for freedom, rights and equity were mirrored in communities across the UK confronting poverty, deprivation and inequality. That insight has shaped both my career, and my commitment to working with others to build a fairer, more equitable and sustainable world.
Over 30 years in public policy, 23 within the Greater London Authority Group, I have turned that commitment into action: securing employment rights for low‑paid workers in Greater Manchester; developing economic strategies in Bolton that empowered communities to build social enterprises and creative start‑ups; leading an inclusive cultural diversity strategy across North West England; and, as the Mayor of London’s Strategic Lead for the 2012 Games regeneration legacy, helping to equalise life chances for East Londoners and transform the area into a thriving hub for communities, businesses and visitors.
Alongside my policy career, I have pursued an academic interest in how culture can empower communities and build social capital for excluded young people. At the heart of both strands has been one question: how do we turn evidence into policy that makes a real difference?
As a UCL CAPE Policy Fellow and Co‑founder of the London Research & Policy Partnership, I found the answer in bringing researchers, policymakers and communities together to tackle urban challenges. It is this approach, connecting evidence, people and policy to create meaningful change, that I now bring to my consultancy.
The 3D Impact Learning Framework©
All of my work is underpinned by my 3D Impact Learning Framework©: a structured framework that diagnoses, designs and embeds the systems needed to turn evidence, partnerships and policy ambition into real‑world impacts. [7]
Diagnose
Create clarity from complexity: mapping the current system across evidence, partnerships, delivery and governance, identifying exactly where it stalls or disconnects, and assessing individual capability separately from institutional readiness, so each is seen clearly in its own right.
Design
Build a fit‑for‑purpose operating system: governance and decision‑making structures, a clear pathway that translates evidence into policy, partnerships aligned on roles and incentives, and ways to recognise and reward new ways of working, not only successful outcomes.
Deliver
Embed and activate the system in a live environment: convening stakeholders, securing visible leadership sponsorship, building the tools and processes that hold firm under pressure, and setting out who reviews progress and scales what works.
Learn
Turn delivery into institutional intelligence: capturing what worked, codifying it into repeatable practice, and diffusing it across the organisation, so every engagement strengthens the next rather than starting again from zero.
Learn feeds directly back into Diagnose, so every engagement sharpens the next.
Be the change: communities shaping the evidence that shapes policy.
Five offers. One route from relevance to delivery.
Each offer has a distinct entry point, from developing people and testing a challenge through to diagnosing and fixing a stalled strategy, partnership or programme. Together, they create a connected route towards lasting institutional capability.
ARI Lifecycle Model
A nine‑stage, end‑to‑end system that helps local authorities, sub‑regional partnerships and mayoral and combined authorities connect with universities to build a systematic, demand‑led research agenda tailored to their own circumstances. Co‑production sits at its core, with policymakers, researchers, analysts and communities collaborating throughout, and each project is co‑led by Dr Michelle Reeves alongside a client lead, supported by structured governance, peer review, and a built‑in evaluation framework.
An intensive scoping commission that maps your evidence and policy landscape, identifies and prioritises your genuine Areas of Research Interest, and surfaces the golden thread connecting institutional ambition to policy need.
End‑to‑end delivery across the nine stages of the ARI Lifecycle Model.
Spark to Scale©
Universities are under growing pressure to prove their civic value, while local/regional authorities are stretched thin, solving harder problems with fewer resources. Spark to Scale© connects the two: helping universities, policymakers, civil society and community organisations turn bold ideas into real‑world solutions, moving them across the gap between research and delivery. Built from flexible service modules, so an organisation can start with a single sprint and scale up as trust and ambition grow.
For scoping or de‑risking a new project: challenge mapping, an evidence brief and one facilitated workshop.
A targeted, end‑to‑end innovation partnership on a defined civic or place‑based challenge, combining sprints, a delivery roadmap and evaluation.
For long‑term transformation: an embedded innovation function, retained advisory support and capability‑building for the organisation itself.
Boundary Crossing for Practitioners©
A modular e‑training programme for mid‑career and senior policy professionals and knowledge mobilisers, powered by the ARI Lifecycle Model and 3D Impact Learning Framework©. Twelve modules over 9–12 months (around 60 learning hours), blending self‑paced content with live online sessions, teach how universities actually work, and equip you to be understood by academic partners in return, closing a gap no other UK programme currently addresses.
MRC Leadership Exchange Programme©
Executive‑level education for senior university leaders, and senior policy leaders in local, mayoral, and combined authorities. The MRC Leadership Exchange Programme© teaches how to lead, design and institutionalise academic‑policy engagement, civic partnerships, and university‑government‑industry innovation systems, developing both the people who broker relationships, and the leaders who create the conditions in which brokerage succeeds. Delivered as a cohort programme over several months, combining executive intensive learning modules, peer action‑learning groups, expert coaching, cross‑sector placements, and an applied partnership project.
Enquire about the programmeField Brief©
A pilot model connecting university students with real‑world civic, policy, and community challenges through short, structured live briefs (typically four to six weeks), built on five core principles: authenticity, alignment to learning outcomes, equity of workload, timely support and structured reflection. Partners gain fresh thinking on a live challenge; students gain genuine experience of the world of work. Each brief is run through structured mentoring: a faculty supervisor and a client mentor provide regular check‑ins, alongside peer learning within the student team.
A one‑day engagement workshop delivered to your faculty staff, embedding the Field Brief© playbook so your own teams can run live briefs independently.
Working with your faculty or individual lecturers to adapt the playbook and templates to your subject matter, then co‑facilitating the brief alongside your academic lead or supervisor.
A fully hands‑on, paid pilot: I run the live brief directly, with built‑in evaluation, giving you a tested case study before you scale.
The city as the site of change: where policy meets place.
Start where your challenge is.
For organisations that have outgrown a single sprint or project, Sustain is the embedded route: an ongoing, retained relationship built around continuous diagnosis rather than one‑off delivery. I work alongside your team as an embedded, critical partner, helping you navigate institutional resistance and structural disconnects as they arise rather than after the fact, while building your own organisation’s capability to sustain the work.
Held to a small number of partners at any one time, to protect the depth of the relationship.
Book a Chat
The Pulse: fortnightly intelligence, without the filler
A fortnightly briefing for senior people working across higher education, policy, innovation and digital practice. Five points worth knowing, distilled for people who need relevance rather than more reading.
Ready to turn ambition into delivery?
Whether you are building on a promising strategy, strengthening a partnership, developing capability, or bringing the right people around the table to take an opportunity forward, we can start with a straightforward conversation about what you want to achieve and what would genuinely help.
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