Established in the late 1920s, the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) was a highly significant and influential institute for educational research, in both the scope and the methodology of its work, in Scotland and abroad. It was one of the first of a new kind of institution; it signalled the rise of specialized research institutes, outside the university yet closely connected to academic work and to the governing of education, across the Western world. Research Institutes are a flexible way of managing tasks and influencing policy: they appear to conform to disciplinary procedures and yet they are free to inquire and suggest policy directions. SCRE did not have a specialized staff of researchers but it did work cooperatively, as a prototype knowledge network, linking together in projects a wide range of Scottish academics, teachers and education managers. Together, they were bound in a movement for reform and experiment.