At AERDF, we exist to push the boundaries of what’s believed to be possible in education research and development—bringing bold ideas to life and bridging the gap between innovation and real-world learning impact.
AERDF aims to deliver proven and accessible inventions to the education sector. Since our inception in 2021, we’ve embraced a model that unites the rigor of learning science with practical classroom application: Advanced Inclusive Research & Development.
Advanced because we enable ambitious research that leads to discovery, discovery that leads to invention, and invention that leads to adoption, transforming learning outcomes for all learners.
Inclusive because our model brings together educators, learners, researchers, and technologists as equal partners to co-design research-backed, classroom-tested solutions from day one, ensuring their wisdom about what works, for whom, and under what conditions are embedded within discoveries that serve real needs.
Research AND Development because we build shared tools, platforms, and virtual environments that compress research timelines and make breakthroughs more efficient, ethical, usable, and scalable.
Why an Advanced Inclusive R&D Model Matters
Education R&D has long been fragmented and underfunded. Too often, promising ideas are developed in isolation, without the perspective of the people closest to learning: students, families, and educators. Meanwhile, breakthrough research doesn’t always translate into tools and practices that improve learning in the real world. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education receives less than 0.2% of federal research and development funding, while sectors like energy and healthcare receive billions. This leaves education without the discovery hub it needs.
AERDF was created to change that. We operate as the nation’s discovery and invention hub for public education, unlocking breakthrough learning solutions that are designed to reach students in actual classrooms. Our signature approach, Advanced Inclusive R&D, is designed to do what traditional education research rarely does: drive bold, high-risk, high-reward discovery that pushes beyond known solutions. Our work is not about improving the margins, it’s about creating what doesn’t exist yet, and doing it in partnership with the people education was built to serve. Educators and learners are equal partners from the start, ensuring discoveries serve real needs.
Through our Advanced Inclusive R&D model, we provide the guidance, infrastructure, and partnerships needed to move bold ideas from research to real-world impact. Our approach successfully compresses traditional R&D timelines from decades to just 3–5 years, so students benefit now, not later, and systems evolve faster.
Understanding Advanced Inclusive R&D
Advanced Inclusive R&D is a collaborative approach that brings together researchers, educators, developers, and learners to work across every phase of the R&D process, from early discovery to real-world adoption. It emphasizes deep partnership, scientific rigor, and real-world relevance, creating conditions for ambitious innovation that are both groundbreaking, effective, and useful.
This model is the foundation of AERDF’s work, as illustrated below:
The Four Phases of Advanced Inclusive R&D
- Scientific Discovery + Invention
We support ambitious research that generates new knowledge and solutions in education. From the start, we collaborate with educators and learners throughout the process, ensuring discoveries are grounded in the realities of today’s classrooms and communities. - Transition to the Real World
We help innovations evolve from concept to application. That means supporting pilot testing, feedback loops, and adaptations that make new tools and approaches viable in diverse learning environments. - Sustainability + Adoption
We promote the widespread adoption of our scientific research, technical capabilities, and dynamic prototypes through strategic, cross-sector partnerships and connections to funding opportunities that can take these solutions and insights to scale in schools across the nation. - Learning Transformation
The goal of our work is lasting, meaningful change in how learning happens. When discovery, design, and implementation work in harmony, we create the conditions for breakthroughs that can benefit learners nationwide.
How We Approach R&D Investment
Through our unique Advanced Inclusive R&D approach, AERDF programs manage a portfolio of R&D projects with expansive scopes that exceed the limitations of traditional, one-time grants. AERDF programs focus on opportunity spaces that are:
- Under-explored and with strong potential for major breakthroughs, unlocking significant new capabilities that would propel teaching and learning outcomes in our US PreK-12 education system.
- Critically important for learners in order to nurture their brilliance and transform their educational experiences.
- Ideally explored by a cross-sector community of experts whose diverse insights, perspectives, and resources catalyze progress in a way no one could achieve on their own.
Looking Ahead to the Future of Education
At its core, this model is about driving what’s next in education. We believe in research that leads to invention, invention that leads to adoption, and adoption that leads to transformation.
And we know this work can’t happen in silos.
AERDF’s Advanced Inclusive R&D model unites educators, caregivers, learners, scientists, and technologists to discover research-backed solutions that push the limits of what’s believed to be possible in education. We are building the infrastructure, partnerships, and momentum needed to move discoveries from idea to impact, so every student can thrive in a rapidly changing world. Support our work and get involved.
