The Royal Society and British Academy are launching a project today (14 September 2016) to determine how best to harness new and up-to-date research methodologies, using the latest technologies, big data and interdisciplinary approaches, to improve educational outcomes for young people in the UK and internationally.

The Academies believe that high quality research has the potential to transform education in the UK, and internationally, but are concerned that levels of research income and the size of the educational research community have fallen in recent years. 

This new project will investigate the opportunities and challenges for teachers, researchers, funders and policy-makers – from the funding and commissioning of research to accessing and applying it. It will also assess how the connections between these groups may be strengthened so as to ensure that research informs and is consistently informed by policy and practice.

Sir Alan Wilson FBA FRS, chair of the Working Group, said:

“In this increasingly complex, connected and competitive world, there is unprecedented desire to understand how educational achievement and outcomes can be improved for all young people. Educational research has a crucial role to play in providing the evidence that will help make this possible. We must, therefore, ensure that the research ecosystem (including researchers, funders, teachers and policy-makers) is healthy and well-coordinated. This joint Royal Society–British Academy project seeks to ensure that it will be.”  

Today, the Royal Society and British Academy are issuing a call for views in order to inform the work of the project. The call for views is available to download at: https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/royal-society-british-academy-educational-research/and www.britishacademy.ac.uk/education-research.