National Foundation for Educational Research

Who we are

A registered charity with an income of £18 million and 220 staff. We undertake around 200 research projects every year, spanning all sectors of education and children’s services. Our mission is to;

Provide robust, independent research and related services that improve education particularly for children and young people. Our research, assessments and other services are widely known and used by key decision makers and our work supports effective policy and practice in education, in the UK and internationally.

Through our extensive knowledge and our trusted expertise we offer a unique perspective, and provide authoritative insights which are relevant and accessible and used to inform debate on the issues that matter in education. Our clients include government departments and agencies at international, national and local levels, all of whom benefit from NFER’s full range of expertise and professional services including access to international networks and data sources. We also invest NFER’s own resources to fund research and development activities that we believe will have a positive impact on society and improve the services we offer our clients.

We undertake research on all aspects of education from early years to higher education, and share the results with a wide range of organisations and individuals, including education policy makers and professionals. We use our expertise to identify and develop practical solutions to bring about improvements for children and young people often working in collaboration with partners.

We strongly believe that changes to education should be informed by evidence and the impacts evaluated so that policy makers, leaders and practitioners can see whether their actions are really making a difference. We work with those who are genuinely interested in making a difference to education, from major employers to government departments; from school leaders and teachers to parents.

The majority of NFER’s staff are based at the Foundation’s Slough office which is located in pleasant grounds less than a mile from the centre of Slough. Communications by road and rail are excellent and there is free parking. There is also a regional office in York.