Birkbeck and UCL awarded £3 million to establish new educational neuroscience centre
The centre will interrogate questions relevant to learning and education, including the impact of AI technologies.
Birkbeck, University of London and University College London (UCL) have been awarded £3 million by the Department for Education (DfE) to establish a new policy research centre focused on educational neuroscience.
Building on 18 years of pioneering work by the Centre for Educational Neuroscience (a partnership between Birkbeck and the UCL Institute of Education), the new centre will bring together expertise from nine UK universities to generate evidence that directly informs education policy and practice.
The consortium will investigate some of the most pressing questions facing education today, including how cognitive and biological factors could support earlier identification of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and the impact of AI-enhanced technologies in home and school learning environments.
Denis Mareschal, Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck and Co-Director of the new Educational Neuroscience Policy Research Centre, commented:
“Educational neuroscience has reached a level of maturity as a discipline, and at the Centre for Educational Neuroscience we’ve been doing this for 18 years, bringing together what we've learned from brain sciences – how the brain works, how learning happens in the brain, and what lessons can we draw from that to improve the delivery of educational practice. This new centre will act as a bridge between cognitive neuroscientists, educational practitioners, and policymakers – to directly inform policy and practice.”
Early Education Minister Olivia Bailey said: "Decisions should of course be rooted in what the evidence tells us actually works for children and young people.
“This new centre will help us do exactly that – bringing together some of the best minds in the country to make sure our reforms on SEND, early years, and children's mental health are built on solid foundations, and that we understand the long-term value of the choices we make."
Alongside strengthening collaboration across academia, the centre will place a strong emphasis on supporting early career researchers. Seven postdoctoral researchers will be recruited to work at the centre, while students on the MSc Educational Neuroscience programme at Birkbeck and UCL will also have the possibility of contributing to its work.
The initiative forms part of a wider commitment to developing future expertise in educational neuroscience in the UK and internationally.