Ondata Research provides evaluation services and consultancy to multiple organisations. We collaborate with clients to help them understand project impact, whilst also providing mentoring and support through the phases of project development and delivery.

Services include:

  • Evaluation framework development.
  • Method design (including qualitative and quantitative methods).
  • Data analysis.
  • Report writing.
  • Research-informed advice and guidance in areas including education, outreach and public engagement.
  • Policy development, resource development and advocacy in education, outreach and public engagement.

The research and evaluation work carried out for clients is responsive to the project. Each project has its own programme of evaluation designed to allow the impact to be understood as fully as possible. In particular, we have experience with:

  • Designing qualitative and quantitative tools to understand whether a project’s aims have been met and to ensure space to explore unexpected impacts.
  • Collaborating with project teams throughout to provide guidance and support.
  • Analysis and interpretation of large data sets, including across multiple years of a project lifetime.
  • Communicating and explaining impact effectively.
  • Supporting project teams to explore the theoretical grounding of their work.

Ondata Research is led by Director, Laura Thomas:

Laura has worked with many different organisations on the evaluation of a range of initiatives and programmes. This includes: developing evaluation frameworks, designing methods for data collection (including both qualitative and quantitative methods), data analysis and report writing. She enjoys collaborating with project teams across the lifetime of a project and supports project teams in undertaking reflection as they progress. In terms of scale, she has experience evaluating programmes with a small number of participants to those engaging hundreds of thousands or involving large numbers of partners. She has extensive experience with a range of projects across primary, secondary and higher education, informal education and public engagement. In addition to her evaluation experience, she has also undertaken resource development, delivery and training for a variety of organisations such as schools, museums, education charities, universities and professional bodies. Her first degree is an MPhys in Astrophysics but she also holds an MRes in Education Research. She is currently a part-time Doctoral researcher at the University of Stirling with an interest in professional learning and retention of physics teachers. She is also a Research Fellow at the University of Stirling, supporting a climate change education project.

Contact:

You can find Laura online at LinkedIn and on ResearchGate. A summary of her publications are below.

You can get in touch with Laura via info@ondata.org.uk

Current clients include:

Previous clients are listed below, listed by the year projects were completed.

2024

British Physics Olympiad: establishing evaluation framework and approach for BPhO activities, 2023-2024.

Institute of Physics: Evaluation of the professional learning offered to physics teachers in Scotland, 2024.

Love Reading Mentoring: evaluation of this mentoring pilot project led by Cardiff University, 2023-2024.

MFL Mentoring Project: Analysis of learner survey data on attitudes and intentions relating to languages and other curriculum areas, 2023-2024.

Royal Society of Chemistry: Impact of their Outreach Fund between 2020 and 2022. Delivered in collaboration with Dr Charlotte Thorley.

Xplore: evaluation of their Mindsets + Missions project, 2023-2024.

2023

Association for Science and Discovery Centres: Review of the ASDC/STFC project on ‘Valuing inclusion’, 2023.

Department of Physics, Oxford University: evaluation of the Zooniverse in Schools project, 2022-2023.

Institute of Physics: Evaluation of the pilot year of the Communities in Conversations project, 2021-2023.

Ogden Trust Outreach Officer Programme: evaluation of the programme to date, 2021-2023. Completed in collaboration with Dr Charlotte Thorley.

Science and Technologies Facilities Council: review of stakeholder experiences during the James Webb Space Telescope campaign and impact evaluation of the Deep Space Diaries project, 2022-2023.

University of Stirling: evaluation of the Remembering Empire project, 2022-2023.

Vocal: Public involvement landscape review for the Medical Research Council, 2022-2023 as Associate for the Vocal Team.

2022

Aberdeen Science Centre: an evaluation report on the redevelopment of the science centre, 2022.

Association for Science and Discovery Centres: Evaluation of phase 3 of Destination Space and phase 2.5 of Operation Earth, 2022.

Dundee Science Centre: evaluation of the CONNECT project, 2020-2022.

Institute of Physics: Evidence gathering and reporting in relation to the Subjects Matter report in Scotland, 2021-2022. This project focusses on the impact of subject-specific professional learning on teachers. RSE event information here and IOP report available here, Scotland-specific evidence paper from Ondata available here.

MFL Mentoring Project: Scoping review for Welsh Government on using mentoring to support the development of reading enjoyment, 2022. This become the Love Reading project.

National Space Academy: evaluation and monitoring of Ogden Trust funded masterclasses, 2019-2022.

2021

Association for Science and Discovery Centres: Evaluation of phase 2b of the Destination Space project, 2021.

Association for Science and Discovery Centres: Evaluation of the Emerging Leaders programme, 2021.

In2Science: data analysis and interpretation around impact of their mentoring programme for their annual impact report, 2021.

Planet Divoc-91: evaluation of the impact on participants of this Wellcome Trust funded project, which brings together young people, scientists and artists to co-produce a regular webcomic, 2020-2021.

SHAPE education programme: evaluation of the pilot education programme of the SHAPE initiative led by LSE, 2020-2021.

STEM Learning/ESERO-UK: Evaluation of Mission X: train like an astronaut challenge, 2021.

2020

Language Horizons: evaluation of beta phase pilot, 2019-2020.

MFL Mentoring Project: Review of the project to date, 2015-2020.