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Prof. Martin Brown

Martin Brown is Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University (DCU). From 2020–2025, he was Head of the School of Policy and Practice and co-director at EQI – The Centre for Evaluation Quality and Inspection, which is also based at DCU. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of Improving Schools (Sage).

He has held various roles at the European Commission, including Quality Control Expert, Rapporteur, and Evaluator across multiple funding streams. In addition, he serves as a Research Expert with the FWO Review College for Fundamental Research (Psychology, Pedagogy and Educational Sciences Panel) - Belgium.

He is an advisor to the Teaching Council of Ireland, a member of the research panel for Leargas Ireland, an adjunct faculty member of the Centre for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment at the University of Illinois, and a visiting professor at Ankara University under the Turkish Higher Education Law (2547).

He has planned and led evaluations in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Europe and the Middle East; working for, among others, the European Commission, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and Youth (Ireland), the State Education Development Agency (Latvia), and the United Arab Emirates government. In 2023, he was also appointed by the Department of Education, Northern Ireland, as an Academic Advisor for the end-to-end review of Northern Ireland’s education system.

He is also an Editorial Board Member of the following Scopus-ranked journals:

In 2025, he received the President of DCU Gold Medal for Academic Research and a Research Ireland Research Ally award that honours the positive role of mentors and supervisors. In 2021, in recognition of his engagement with education communities on the island of Ireland, he also received the President of DCU Gold Medal for Engagement. The most recent report on this initiative can be found at the following link. In 2020, he received the President of DCU Gold Medal for Research Impact, and in the same year, the President of DCU Gold Medal for Distinctive Approaches to Teaching. In 2018 and 2020, He also received two all-island SCOTENS Awards for outstanding research in teacher education.

Martin holds a B.Sc. and H.Ed from NUI Maynooth and an M.Sc. and PhD from Dublin City University.

Research Interests

Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment, Comparative Education, Evidence Informed Practice, school and Community Evaluation, Policy  Influences in Education, Inclusion in Education, and Early School Leaving.

Funding Highlights

Martin has conducted research across multiple funded projects. He is presently the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator on the following projects:

    • Horizon Europe: Trends on Educational Inequalities over Time and Successful Interventions that Contribute to Reverse Them (Reverse-Ed) – Principal Investigator

    • Horizon Europe: Policies and Practices Based on Scientific Research for Reducing Underachievement and Early School Leaving in Europe (SCIREARLY) – Co-Principal Investigator

    • Erasmus+: Quality Assurance and Learning Analytics in Schools (QUALAS) – Principal Investigator

    • Spanish Ministry of Education: Exploring Educational Interventions through Large Scale Data Sets in European Countries (EVIDENCE) – Co-Principal Investigator