Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


NERD Undertakes Cataloging of 10,000 Ed Researchers

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 03/21/17

A school of education and the tech accelerator it launched in 2015 are working together to create a database of education researchers. The National Education Researcher Database, or NERD, as it's known, is a joint project undertaken by the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education and Jefferson Education Accelerator. The goal: to spark collaboration among those researchers, school people and education technology entrepreneurs.

The first step in the project is to create a catalog containing information about every education researcher in the country. That data will be made freely available and searchable on the NERD site. The founders of the effort expect the catalog eventually to contain 10,000 researcher profiles. Users will be able to "follow" their favorite researchers and receive alerts when their accomplishments and availability are updated.

"The $10 billion ed tech market is rife with shiny products that promise to transform teaching and learning. But educators have precious little data to understand which products are most likely to work in various environments," said Curry School Dean, Bob Pianta, in a prepared statement. "The market is clamoring for better evidence, but the research community feels like a black box to entrepreneurs and investors. Who are the rock stars of education research? What sort of expertise can they bring to bear on the design and implementation of new products?"

"By helping education companies find researchers early and engage them as partners, advisors and evaluators, we expect that companies will build better products that are based more on learning science," added Bart Epstein, founding CEO of the accelerator.

The creation of the database is being supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • man viewing holographic display of data and code

    Why Cross-Skilling Is the Smartest Investment a Campus IT Team Can Make

    Higher education IT teams are being asked to keep pace with AI, cloud, and cybersecurity on flat budgets, and hiring a specialist for every new need can no longer keep up. Building adjacent skills across the people already on staff creates more agile, resilient teams that move faster and retain talent without adding headcount. Pluralsight makes the strategy work through skill assessments, tailored learning paths, hands-on labs and sandboxes, and microlearning that fits into the flow of work.

  • abstract malware attack

    Report: AI Ransomware Can Now Run Much of an Attack Without Human Help

    Ransomware attacks are becoming more automated, and AI could take that much further, according to global cybersecurity company NCC Group's July 2026 threat intelligence report.

  • Student classroom scene with diverse learners attentively engaging in lecture, using laptops

    The AI Literacy Gap No One Expected

    While Gen Z may be advanced at generating quick outputs or using free LLMs for surface-level tasks, they need to develop critical thinking, communication, and analysis skills.

  • Blue digital wireframe classical building structure

    Before AI, Fix Your Data

    Institutions don't have to solve every data problem before they can begin using AI responsibly. But they do need to treat information as a strategic asset — not a byproduct of operations — and start building toward AI-ready data now.