Since 2014 BERA has awarded the John Nisbet Fellowship to one or more people who are deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to educational research over their career. Named in honour of our first President, this award recognises individuals who exemplify BERA’s commitment to encouraging educational research and its application for the improvement of practice and public benefit.  

This year we are running an open call for nominations. If you would like to nominate someone for the 2020 fellowship please send a nomination to membership@bera.ac.uk by Tuesday 5th November 2019. The selection committee will review all nominations after this deadline. 

The following overriding principles should inform any nomination process:

• In the round any BERA nominations should be reflective of the diversity of the field – methodologically, geographically, demographically. In particular BERA is aware of its responsibility towards the four nations.
• BERA is committed to nominating a knowledgeable, skilled, diverse and talented pool of candidates.

In that context, nominees should have:

• Evidence of sustained high quality in their research;
• Evidence of the significant impact of their research;
• Evidence of leadership of education research;
• Contributed to the creation of a strong infrastructure of professional practice in the field, not least by making a clear contribution to supporting early career researchers;
• A track record of promoting the benefits of research to wider audiences;
• In particular, the John Nisbet Fellowship award recognises individuals who exemplify BERA’s commitment to encouraging educational research and its application for the improvement of practice and public benefit.  

Previous winners of this esteemed Fellowship can be found here.