The LEGO Foundation is a Denmark-based nonprofit organization that funds academic research and university partnerships on play-based learning and early-childhood development. It is a legally separate entity from the LEGO Group, the toy manufacturer — a distinction that matters for anyone trying to find its research-funding programs online, since general web searches for “LEGO” are dominated by the toy business. This guide covers what the LEGO Foundation is, the research it funds, its major university partnerships, and how research administrators and faculty typically engage with it.
What Is the LEGO Foundation?
The LEGO Foundation is a charitable foundation headquartered in Billund, Denmark, whose stated mission is to “build a world of play” by expanding access to and evidence for play-based learning. It is structurally linked to the LEGO Group but is not the same organization: the LEGO Group (the company that manufactures LEGO bricks and sets) is owned by two shareholders — KIRKBI A/S, the Kristiansen family’s holding company, which holds the majority (75%) stake, and the LEGO Foundation, which holds the remaining 25%. The LEGO Foundation’s share of Group dividends funds its philanthropic and research programs rather than being reinvested in the toy business. This ownership structure — a family holding company retaining control while a charitable foundation holds a minority stake and receives a share of profits for social-impact spending — is a known pattern among some European family-owned enterprises, though the specific split and governance arrangements are particular to KIRKBI and the LEGO Foundation.
For research administrators, the practical takeaway is that the LEGO Foundation operates as an independent grantmaking and program-delivery organization with its own leadership, strategy, and application processes — it is not a corporate-giving or marketing arm of the toy company, even though the brand and much of its funding ultimately derive from it.
What Kind of Research the LEGO Foundation Funds
The LEGO Foundation’s research funding is organized around the concept of “learning through play”: the empirical study of how playful, child-led, and playful-pedagogy approaches support cognitive, social, and emotional development, primarily in early childhood. In practice this has meant funding for:
- University research centres dedicated to the study of play and child development
- Multi-year research programs and research collaboratives examining playful pedagogy in formal schooling
- PhD studentships and early-career research positions in developmental and educational psychology
- Prizes and recognition awards for researchers whose work has advanced the science of early childhood development
This funding sits within the broader landscape of private foundation funding for education and child-development research, alongside foundations such as the Spencer Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation, both of which also fund academic research in education and youth development, though neither is organized around play specifically the way the LEGO Foundation is.
University Partnerships
University of Cambridge: The PEDAL Centre
In 2015, the LEGO Foundation funded the launch of the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) within the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education. PEDAL has been directed by Paul Ramchandani, who holds the LEGO Foundation-endowed LEGO Professor of Play chair at Cambridge. The centre conducts research on play and child development and produces evidence-based resources aimed at teachers, parents, and policymakers, and has continued to receive LEGO Foundation funding renewals since its founding.
Harvard University: Project Zero and the Center on the Developing Child
The LEGO Foundation has funded two separate research bodies at Harvard:
- Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education’s research organization, received LEGO Foundation funding for its Pedagogy of Play project, a teacher-participatory research initiative launched around 2015 that investigates what it means to put playful learning at the center of classroom practice.
- The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University has received LEGO Foundation support, including funding specifically directed toward development of the Center’s IDEAS Impact Framework and related brain-development-through-play resources. The Center’s director, Jack Shonkoff, was awarded the LEGO Prize by the LEGO Foundation in 2019 in recognition of his contributions to the science of early childhood development.
These are two distinct Harvard entities with separate LEGO Foundation-funded projects; research administrators evaluating a Harvard-based play-research collaboration should confirm which of the two (or another Harvard unit entirely) is actually involved, since program scope, PI, and funding terms differ between them.
Other reported research partnerships
The LEGO Foundation has also been reported as a funder of play-related research collaboratives with organizations such as Education Development Center (EDC) on technology-supported playful learning. Because the LEGO Foundation does not publish a single comprehensive, continuously updated public list of every active university partnership, research administrators should treat any specific partnership not confirmed on legofoundation.com or learningthroughplay.com (the Foundation’s own research and public-engagement site) as provisional until verified directly.
How the LEGO Foundation’s Funding Model Differs from a National Funding Agency
Unlike a national research council or federal agency that runs standing, published funding opportunity announcements with fixed deadlines and open eligibility (see, for comparison, how a body like the National Science Foundation (NSF) operates), the LEGO Foundation’s major university research funding has historically been structured as sustained, multi-year institutional partnerships — endowed chairs, dedicated research centres, and named research programs — rather than a general, continuously open call for proposals from any interested principal investigator. This matters for how a research administrator should approach it:
- It functions more like a large private foundation grant relationship than a competitive federal mechanism. Major awards tend to go to established centres and named investigators rather than being distributed through an open general RFP process comparable to an NIH or NSF program.
- Smaller or programmatic funding opportunities do periodically appear (for example, grant listings aggregated by third-party funder databases have described LEGO Foundation calls focused on specific themes such as play in humanitarian and crisis-affected settings). These should always be verified on the Foundation’s own site, since third-party funder-database listings can lag or misstate current eligibility and deadlines.
- There is no single universal “apply here” portal comparable to Grants.gov or a national research council’s e-portal. Researchers interested in LEGO Foundation funding should start at legofoundation.com’s own partnerships and funding pages, and, where a relevant institutional relationship already exists (as at Cambridge or Harvard), work through their own institution’s sponsored-programs or development office, which will typically already have an existing point of contact.
As with any funder, an institution should record the LEGO Foundation as the funding entity on research-funder and Funder ID metadata fields, and grants-management platforms — including private-foundation-oriented systems like Fluxx, which many foundations use to manage the grant lifecycle — may already have the LEGO Foundation listed as a funder profile if the institution has received prior awards from it.
LEGO Foundation vs. LEGO Group: Why the Distinction Matters
Because “LEGO” as a search term and brand is overwhelmingly associated with the toy and retail business, it’s worth being explicit about the distinction for anyone doing funder research or due diligence:
- LEGO Group is the private company that designs, manufactures, and sells LEGO-brand construction toys. It is majority-owned by KIRKBI A/S.
- The LEGO Foundation is a separate charitable foundation that holds a minority (25%) ownership stake in the LEGO Group and uses its share of Group dividends, plus its own endowment, to fund play-based learning research, early-childhood programs, and university partnerships. It does not manufacture or sell toys, and its research-funding decisions are made independently of LEGO Group product or commercial strategy.
A university development office or research-administration team encountering “LEGO” as a prospective funder should confirm early which of the two entities they are actually corresponding with, since only the Foundation runs academic research grantmaking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the LEGO Foundation the same company as LEGO Group, the toy maker?
No. The LEGO Group is the toy manufacturer, majority-owned by KIRKBI A/S. The LEGO Foundation is a separate charitable foundation that holds a 25% ownership stake in the LEGO Group and uses that position, plus its own funds, to finance play-based learning research and education programs independently of the toy business.
What is PEDAL at the University of Cambridge?
PEDAL (the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning) is a research centre within Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, launched with LEGO Foundation funding in 2015. It is directed by Paul Ramchandani, who holds the LEGO Foundation-endowed LEGO Professor of Play chair.
Does Harvard University receive funding from the LEGO Foundation?
Yes, through at least two separate Harvard units: Project Zero (for its Pedagogy of Play research) and the Center on the Developing Child (for work including its IDEAS Impact Framework). These are distinct projects with different scopes, so a specific Harvard-LEGO Foundation collaboration should be confirmed by unit before assuming which one is involved.
What is the LEGO Prize?
The LEGO Prize is an award given by the LEGO Foundation recognizing contributions to the science of children’s learning and development. Jack Shonkoff, director of Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, received the LEGO Prize in 2019.
Can individual researchers apply directly for LEGO Foundation funding?
The LEGO Foundation’s largest, best-documented university awards have been structured as sustained institutional partnerships (endowed chairs, dedicated centres) rather than an open, continuously-published call for proposals from any individual PI. Narrower, themed funding opportunities do appear periodically through the Foundation and third-party funder listings, so researchers should check legofoundation.com directly and, where an existing institutional relationship exists, coordinate through their sponsored-programs or development office rather than assuming a standing open portal.
What research topics does the LEGO Foundation prioritize?
Its funding centers on play-based and playful pedagogy research: how child-led and playful learning approaches affect cognitive, social, and emotional development, primarily in early childhood, and how that evidence can inform classroom practice and early-childhood policy.
