APOLLO FACT OF THE DAY: MARK THOMPSON TO STEP DOWN AS DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE BBC IN AUTUMN

Thinktanks and Research Institutes

Since the Institute for Economic Affairs and Centre for Policy Studies shaped the growth of "Thatcherite" ideas in the late 1970s, thinktanks have become a feature of the British political landscape – with each political generation founding their own institutions to "think-the-unthinkable". Just as the nineties belonged to Demos and the IPPR, so Policy Exchange and Reform look set to dominate the Cameronian period.

Thinktanks have a vital role in pushing the boundaries of the possible for politicians around the world (from health care reform in the US to Recycling in Germany to to "baby bonds" in the UK) - generating the column inches and media debates that allow them to move into the space that would once have seemed off-limits.

Apollo is made up of journalists who are at the cutting edge of current media debate and therefore know where and how ideas can pack the biggest punch. We have many of the special skills that can see think-tank ideas widely disseminated - from drafting opinion editorials in major international publications to ensuring your ideas are discussed on the broadcast outlets and podcasts that opinion formers listen to.

We also understand how think tanks "think" - born out of our people having had senior positions at a number of Thinktanks including a former editorial director of the Foreign Policy Centre. And we have a long track record of working with a wide variety of Thinktanks from around the world – from the US German Marshall Fund, the European Council for Foreign Relations, Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Barrow Cadbury Trust. For these clients we have secured coverage for their reports in the Economist, the Washington Post and helped publicize their ideas through opinion-editorials in the FT and the International Herald Tribune.