This year’s annual report hits a junction in the Nuffield Foundation’s history. It sits between the end of a five-year strategy period that has seen some fundamental changes in Nuffield’s ambitions and the launch of the next five-year plan in 2024. In the past five years, we have more than doubled our spending and have established within the Foundation new centres on Artificial Intelligence and Justice alongside the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Increasingly, they will frame our interests and purposes.
The past five years have given Nuffield a sharper sense of the role and social purpose of its research, and what we have achieved will frame our future thinking as we also celebrate our 80thanniversary.
The world of 2023 is very different to that of 2017, let alone 1943 when the Foundation was first established, but many of the issues society faces are similar –
- caring for an ageing population
- ensuring young people can have an education that will allow them to lead a fulfilled life and develop the skills they need for the future world of work
- the impact of advances in technology on lives and opportunities
- access to justice
- the importance of social geography on people’s outcomes
- the changing demographics of an increasingly diverse country
- the relationship between a caring and productive society
As we develop our next five-year strategy, one of our tests will be not only to incorporate our response as a funder to these issues, but to identify the areas of research where we can most shape, directly or indirectly, the course of people’s lives for the better.
Looking back on 2022 we can rightly be proud of what we accomplished. Some highlights:
- Charitable expenditure was £23.2m.
- Our core grants portfolio grew to more than 200 active projects.
- We convened 63 events, bringing together more than 5,000 people.
- The Changing Face of Early Childhood project, a synopsis of more than 90 #Nuffieldfunded research grants. Its final publication Bringing up the next generation, and accompanying conference was in the vanguard of an issue that has come to dominate the policy debate.
- Our three centres demonstrated direct influence on policy and practice. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is carrying out an independent review of the management of disagreements in the care of critically ill children. The Ada Lovelace Institute (now four years old) engaged with the EU institutions and other stakeholders to inform the legislative development of the EU AI Act, and The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory highlighted the use of deprivation of liberty orders on vulnerable children in the family courts system.
While the next strategy will cover a five-year period, in reality we are putting a framework in place for the Foundation to look ahead to the next 20 years. This will also be the theme of our 80th anniversary, and we are looking forward to working closely with all our grant holders and partners to mark this milestone and contribute to shaping the Foundation’s future. We invite you to join us on the journey.
