Nuffield Foundation reviewing priorities in light of Covid-19

The trust expects its annual expenditure to total £100 million over five years

The Nuffield Foundation is reviewing its objectives and adjusting its priorities in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In its annual report, published on 17 July, the chair of the social wellbeing funder, Keith Burnett, said the trust expected to see annual expenditure continue to increase year on year to 2022—totalling more than £100 million over five years.

But he added: “At the time of finalising this report, we are reviewing these objectives and adjusting our priorities in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Nevertheless, the funder insisted its work and objectives were more important than ever.

Reflecting on the past year, the funder’s chief executive Tim Gardam said: “We restructured our research portfolio under the three domains of education, justice and welfare and identified cross-cutting themes that address new trends and disruptive forces—social, demographic, technological and economic—that are changing the structures and context of people’s lives.

“These ambitions have taken shape in the past year through new research initiatives and have been thrown into even sharper relief in early 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

While he acknowledged it was “too early” to understand the long-term social and economic consequences of the crisis, Gardham said it was “already clear that the foundation’s core purpose—analysing the causes and consequences of disadvantage through the course of people’s lives, and identifying interventions to promote opportunity and social inclusion—will be of even greater salience”.

Since the outbreak, the trust has awarded £2m in funding for 10 projects that address the social implications of the pandemic. It has also made additional grants to other projects so they can be repurposed in light of Covid-19.