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:

  • Development of evaluation frameworks.
  • 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.

Current clients include:

  • Association for Science and Discovery Centres:
    • Evaluation of phase 2b of the Destination Space project, 2021.
    • Evaluation of the Emerging Leaders programme, 2021.
    • Evaluation of phase 3 of Destination Space and phase 2.5 of Operation Earth, 2022.
    • Review of the ASDC/STFC project on ‘Valuing inclusion’, 2023.
    • Evaluation of Our World from Space project, involving twenty two centres across the UK, 2023-2025.
  • British Physics Olympiad: establishing evaluation framework and approach for BPhO activities, 2023-2024.
  • Department of Physics, Oxford University: evaluation of the Zooniverse in Schools project, 2022-2023.
  • Science centre partnership including Aberdeen Science Centre, Dundee Science Centre, Glasgow Science Centre and the Science Skills Academy: evaluation of the Powering the Future Learning Lab, 2022-2025.
  • Institute of Physics:
    • Evaluation of the professional learning offered to physics teachers in Scotland, 2024.
    • Evaluation of the pilot year of the Communities in Conversations project, 2021-2023.
  • MFL Student Mentoring Project:
    • Review of the project to date, 2015-2020.
    • Scoping review for Welsh Government on using mentoring to support the development of reading enjoyment, 2022.
    • Analysis of learner survey data on attitudes and intentions relating to languages and other curriculum areas, 2023-2024.
  • Physics Mentoring Project: evaluation of ten mentoring cycles, 2019-2024.
  • Xplore: evaluation of their Mindsets + Missions project, 2023-2024.

Previous clients include:

  • Dundee Science Centre: evaluation of the CONNECT project, 2020-2022.
  • In2Science: data analysis and interpretation around impact of their mentoring programme for their annual impact report, 2021.
  • 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.
  • Language Horizons: evaluation of beta phase pilot, 2019-2020.
  • Love Reading Mentoring: evaluation of this mentoring pilot project led by Cardiff University, 2023-2024.
  • National Space Academy: evaluation and monitoring of Ogden Trust funded masterclasses, 2019-2022.
  • Ogden Trust Outreach Officer Programme: evaluation of the programme to date, 2021-2023.
  • 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.
  • University of Stirling: evaluation of the Remembering Empire project, 2022-2023.
  • SHAPE education programme: evaluation of the pilot education programme of the SHAPE initiative led by LSE, 2020-2021.
  • STEM Learning/ESERO-UK:
    • Resource development for the Climate Detectives project around communicating student research projects, 2020.
    • Evaluation of Mission X: train like an astronaut challenge, 2021.
  • 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.
  • SSERC: advice and guidance to the Young STEM Leader programme, 2019.
  • Vocal:
    • Public involvement landscape review for the Medical Research Council, 2022-2023 as Associate for the Vocal Team.
    • literature review of the impact of public patient involvement.

The research and evaluation work carried out for clients uses a Mixed Methods approach of combining both quantitative and qualitative methods. 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.
  • 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.

Language Horizons Case Study

Funded by the Department for Education (DfE), Language Horizons (led by the University of Cardiff) is a mentoring scheme bringing together university undergraduates with school pupils to encourage them to consider studying modern foreign languages at GCSE and beyond.

We worked with the Language Horizons team to help them understand the impact of the 2019-2020 project cycle on pupils, teachers and university mentors. The project partnered with 4 universities and 40 schools, reaching around 1,000 pupils. We developed and implemented an evaluation methodology, which was reviewed and agreed by both the project team and the DfE. The methodology included both qualitative and quantitative tools, in a mixed methods approach.

There was regular contact with the project team to manage data collection and analysis and an interim report allowed for preliminary results to be reported back to funders. The conclusion to the project, and consequently the final evaluation report, was affected by the March 2020 lockdown. However, we were still able to evidence the wide-ranging impact the project had on pupils, teachers and university mentors.

“Working with Ondata has been a pleasure. Working to tight and moveable timeframes has been eased by the flexibility and commitment that Lizzie and Laura have shown, in particular to delivering outcomes in the interest of the project. They have been attentive to detail and have worked assiduously to understand the project details, working closely with management to ensure that reports are targeted and robust.”

Lucy Jenkins, Project Manager, Language Horizons