ABSTRACT
The Applied Education Research Scheme, despite its pedestrian name and unfortunate acronym, is a national reform project (Sachs, 2003) of considerable ambition that seeks to transform education research cultures and practices in Scotland (Forbes, in press). AERS is a five-year programme, jointly funded by the Scottish
Executive Education Department (SEED) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC)2 with the purpose of enhancing research capacity in education across the different HE institutions, with consequent beneficial effects on school performance. A number of factors contributed to the creation of AERS, and its distinctive form. These included some concern about the apparent lack of excellence in education research, as no higher education institution (HEI) in Scotland achieved a 5* or 5 rating in the most recent RAE.
