Edward Wallis

Senior Data Analyst, Research Data Services

" I joined NFER in 2003 straight from university. My brother, who was at university at the time, was working here during the summer and suggested I apply for a vacancy he’d seen. I was looking for a position that would allow me to combine my technical skills with a variety of work so NFER was an ideal choice.

I work in the Data Production Group, which is a small team within Research Data Services that specializes in handling the data collected as part of NFER’s numerous research projects, cleaning it up and processing it ready for analysis by the statisticians. There’s no such thing as a standard project at NFER - I could be dealing with the data from a small questionnaire survey or a huge longitudinal data collection spanning several years and thousands of pupils so every project is a new challenge. The Foundation is constantly striving to take advantage of new technology wherever possible to help our research, so I’ve had plenty of opportunities to broaden my range of skills. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been working on developing online data collection techniques, making it easier for people to participate in our research via the Internet. I’ve also worked on developing an online portal for schools to use when helping us with our research.

NFER has an active social committee, which I’m currently a member of. We organise all sorts of activities throughout the year, including interdepartmental competitions, evening lessons such as sailing and horse riding, as well as the Foundation’s annual Winter Ball. It’s been a great way to get to know other colleagues from across the Foundation, as well as being a lot of fun. "

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