SERP – the Strategic Education Research Partnership – is an initiative launched while Dr. Alberts was president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academies funded two major studies to investigate why science-based research has a much larger impact on professional practice in fields like medicine, transportation, and agriculture than it has in education. The second study, published in 2003, concluded that having researchers work inside practice settings (such as in teaching hospitals and academic medical centers) has been key for producing research that makes a difference, and it recommended that a new independent organization be created to conduct education research on problems of practice directly in school districts. In response, the non-profit Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) was launched to play this role. Led by founding Executive Director, Suzanne Donovan, SERP recruits outstanding researchers to partner with outstanding practitioners in selected school districts that serve as “field sites.” There the problems being addressed are major ones that have been selected by each school district, resulting in novel products that are freely shared.