Verian Group launches new centres of excellence in UK

Verian Group has launched seven new UK centres of excellence. The move aims to support the UK government in a range of transformative initiatives.

Craig Watkins, UK CEO at Verian Group, commented, "I am delighted to announce the launch of these seven new centres of excellence. We have created these centres specifically to integrate across our existing teams, bringing together the three Verian pillars of our multi-methods technical expertise, the ability to bring the UK citizen into the heart of participatory decision-making, and our policy and subject matter experts. This will ensure that we can continue to best support our clients’ priorities and the UK’s new government’s mission-based approach to delivery.”

Launched in 2016, Verian employs more than 700 people in over 20 countries at the time of the deal. The recent backing of Trilantic Europe has enabled the firm to rapidly expand across the continent, via acquisitions like Lithuanian consultancy PPMI, and with marquee appointments such as former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband or its Global Chair Eric Salma.

Now, the firm is pushing ahead with new ways to work end-to-end across the policy cycle, bringing evidence, insights, research and advice to public policy challenges. In response to the UK government’s new mission-based approach – focusing on ambitious, measurable, long-term objectives – Verian has launched seven centres of excellence to complement their existing teams and support clients with the delivery of the government's national priorities.

The centres connect across the UK teams and bring together Verian’s multi-disciplinary methodological expertise, innovations, case studies and thought leadership, together with policy and subject matter experts; and citizen participation capability. Each centre of excellence is led by a member of Verian's UK leadership team and connects with the expertise of colleagues from across the UK and globe.

The seven new UK centres include the hub for mission delivery, facilitating multi-sector collaboration and helping to develop new participatory methods for research and policy-making; the centre for value for money, helping to evaluate what works in policy impact, and what justifies a programme’s cost; and a centre for democratic engagement, where Verian helps to ensure citizens are involved in decision-making, from juries and assemblies, to deliberative polling and online communities. There are also centres for sustainability and critical infrastructure; justice and safety; opportunity and growth; and public health and wellbeing.

Watkins concluded, “Our approach builds on our existing success and structures and will enable us to better serve our clients, bringing them the latest innovations from across the globe and helping them to understand and connect with citizens to tackle the range of policy challenges faced by the UK."