We are an independent Foundation with a mission to advance educational opportunity and social well-being.

Our impact on people and society
The research we fund has an impact on people’s lives, for example by improving language and literacy, reducing conflict in family separation, and providing independent scrutiny of public spending.

Divorce Reform

Nuffield Early Language Intervention

IFS Green Budget

Post-16 Maths Reform

Discover our impact

Are you doing A levels or Scottish Highers? Enhance your university application and career prospects with a Nuffield Research Placement.

Applying to university? Find out how a Q-Step social science degree will give you the skills and experience to stand out from the crowd.

Shaping social policy for the 2020s

We are calling for applications to our new £15m Strategic Fund for ambitious, interdisciplinary research projects that will address some of the most important challenges facing UK society.

Apply for funding

We offer our grant holders the freedom to frame questions and enable new thinking.

Our research must stand up to rigorous academic scrutiny, but we understand that to be successful in effecting change, it also needs to be relevant to people’s experience.

We aim to improve people’s lives by funding research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare and Justice. We also fund student programmes that give young people skills and confidence in science and research.

We are an open, collaborative and engaged funder that offers more than money. Through connecting the individual projects we fund, we strengthen their collective impact and give voice to an overarching narrative.

We are an independent Foundation with a mission to advance educational opportunity and social well-being.

Explore our research

Education

Justice

Welfare

Ada Lovelace Institute

Nuffield Council on Bioethics

Nuffield Family Justice Observatory

Explore our projects

Status

The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary maths

Reading for meaning: Reciprocal Reading Secondary for struggling readers in KS3

Permanently progressing? Phase two: middle childhood

Women in multiple low-paid employment: pathways between work, care and health

COVID-19 and childcare: local impacts across England

Can maths apps add value to learning?

COVID-19 and school availability: impact on parental labour supply and well-being

Pension saving over the lifecycle

When is a wedding not a marriage? Exploring non-legally binding ceremonies

Assembling the data jigsaw: powering robust population research in MSK disease

Supporting older patients to make informed decisions about knee surgery

Evaluating the short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start

The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary maths

COVID-19 and childcare: local impacts across England

Women in multiple low-paid employment: pathways between work, care and health

The intergenerational transmission of educational underachievement

When is a wedding not a marriage? Exploring non-legally binding ceremonies

Understanding and supporting legal participation for Litigants in Person

Permanently progressing? Phase two: middle childhood

Reading for meaning: Reciprocal Reading Secondary for struggling readers in KS3

Pension saving over the lifecycle

COVID-19 and school availability: impact on parental labour supply and well-being

Evaluating the short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start

Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development

The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary maths

COVID-19 and childcare: local impacts across England

Women in multiple low-paid employment: pathways between work, care and health

The intergenerational transmission of educational underachievement

When is a wedding not a marriage? Exploring non-legally binding ceremonies

Understanding and supporting legal participation for Litigants in Person

Permanently progressing? Phase two: middle childhood

Reading for meaning: Reciprocal Reading Secondary for struggling readers in KS3

Pension saving over the lifecycle

COVID-19 and school availability: impact on parental labour supply and well-being

Evaluating the short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start

Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development

A systematic review of early years degrees and employment pathways

The Nuffield Languages Inquiry and Nuffield Languages Programme

Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training

IFS Green Budget 2013 – 2016

Growing up digital

The Assessment Reform Group

Data about fathers in birth cohort studies (Life Study)

Pupils’ understanding of evolution and inheritance

General Election 2017

Bridging the Evidence Gap in Family Proceedings

The impact of Litigants in Person on the Northern Ireland court system

The influence of cognition and the home environment on early numeracy

Latest news, impact, events and opinion

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The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities: a New Year’s message

Department for Education extends roll out of Nuffield Early Language Intervention

Shockwaves into the future: emerging learning from our COVID-19 research

Improving outcomes for children and families: Introducing the family justice data at the SAIL databank

The British Academy and Nuffield Foundation announce funding for a research and policy collaboration on communities, cohesion and resilience

Early language learning linked to school maths performance

The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities: a New Year’s message

Department for Education extends roll out of Nuffield Early Language Intervention

The British Academy and Nuffield Foundation announce funding for a research and policy collaboration on communities, cohesion and resilience

Early language learning linked to school maths performance

Catch-up education for disadvantaged pupils must not be a one-off intervention

Graduates in early years settings have a positive association with children’s learning outcomes

Independent scrutiny of public finances: the IFS Green Budget

New opportunities for post-16 maths education

Improving access to university through Nuffield Research Placements

Finding Fault research contributes to historic introduction of no fault divorce in England

Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) has a positive impact on children’s learning

Improving outcomes for children and families: Introducing the family justice data at the SAIL databank

Graduates in the early years workforce: how important are degrees for early years staff and the children they care for?

Documenting the crisis: diaries of family life in the UK during COVID-19