The Elevate Great way
Our approach
Sometimes the evidence for a solution is clear, but nobody is building it. When our analysis confirms the gap, we develop early-stage solutions – which could be in many forms, from new digital applications to ‘how to’ best practice guidance.
Many social challenges are framed as problems of individual behaviour – sometimes called the ‘i-frame’. We do things differently. We are here to tackle the big challenges, and improve lives as a result. That’s why we work in the ‘s-frame’: changing the conditions that shape behaviour, rather than asking individuals to adapt to conditions they did not create.
Our multi-disciplinary in-house capabilities, investment capital, and the powerful partnerships we convene enable us to address underlying system challenges. Solutions are high impact, sometimes high risk, and often high in technical difficulty.
In practice
Our approach is agile, but robustly managed through venture programme disciplines across the innovation and implementation lifecycle. We deploy AI, data science and collaborative human innovation, experience and expertise to:
We identify and address the problem, not sit and admire it.
Early-stage research can take different forms. We might undertake rapid LLM-driven reviews of existing data, intelligence and insight – involving evidence reviews, data collection, data modelling and commissioned studies.
We regularly convene experts across sectors and organisations to explore issues through workshops, qualitative and quantitative research, and new thinking. Tailored system mapping is also key. These are big issues involving complex relationships and interactions between institutions, incentives and actors, resulting in outcomes we often need to reverse.
Evidence drives everything we do. Our in-house team of highly experienced research and insight professionals equips us and partners with what we need to answer two key practical questions:
What is the true problem and its causes?
Where can intervention make the greatest impact?
We’ve built a powerful in-house capacity including full accreditation to The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service, which gives us access and approval to work with sensitive data in a trusted research environment. We deploy this at pace and widely with partners in discovery phase
Sometimes the evidence for a solution is clear, but nobody is building it. When our analysis confirms the gap, we develop early-stage solutions – which could be in many forms, from new digital applications to ‘how to’ best practice guidance.
Often there are fantastic innovations already out there, and our collaborations help identify them. Whatever the start point, we bring a range of in-house capabilities including data science, policy understanding, rapid digital development. Most importantly we harness this in a joined-up approach with partners and collaborator from the start – maximising combined resources, expertise and passion.
Early-stage solutions must be created to work at scale. By mapping the systems, understanding the levers that influence current practices, and the consequences of change, we can model and then focus on what will make the biggest impact – at the earliest possible point of intervention.
Evidence guides us at every stage. Our research and insight team ensures we test new and existing approaches rigorously, in the real world. We work with partners who are often deeply involved in day-to-day operations, but who see the opportunities from new ways of working.
In many instances we test and iterate agilely, to learn what works, what doesn't, and why. We use mixed methods to assess the true impact of any intervention, and we’re open and transparent when things aren’t delivering the results we all want.
The rigour we bring to this phase drives value and outcomes.
We invest in solutions that can create meaningful change. That might involve creating new partnerships, unleashing existing innovation, or collaborating to build new approaches, sometimes through our in-house specialist teams. We will always be guided by clear insight into what is needed and at what point will interventions make the most impact. We back ideas with the potential to make a real difference.
Everything we invest in starts with evidence. We combine research, data, expertise and insight from across sectors and disciplines to understand what works – and what could work better. We focus on prevention and early intervention, identifying opportunities to act sooner, improve lives, reduce inequality and create better outcomes for people and communities.
We invest flexibly and collaboratively, using both capital and capability to accelerate change at system level. Sometimes that means funding growth, sometimes bringing together the right partners, and sometimes carrying out deep research or in-house innovation. We don’t run a formal application process – we look for opportunities, people and partnerships with the potential to create lasting impact.
See Investing in change for more information.
The partnership ecosystems we have built create true alliances for change – through to full-scale implementation. We support (sometimes through investment) and help drive the scale-up of what works, through a range of methodologies.
From influencing to secure policy change to embedding new operational processes, and encouraging best practice to driving large scale adoption, it’s only through alliances at all levels that systemic change can happen. It’s a crucial difference that Elevate Great brings to our programmes.
Our multi-disciplinary team has the experience, expertise and record of delivering change for UK and international-leading business, public sector and non-profit organisations. Together we have the capability and capacity to co-design, develop, evaluate – and implement.