Richard Kimbell founded the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) at Goldsmiths University of London in 1990. Since that time, research sponsors include research councils (eg ESRC, NSF [USA]), industry (eg LEGO, BP), government departments (eg DfES, DfID), as well as professional and charitable organisations (eg Engineering Council, Royal Society of Arts, Design Museum).

Kimbell has published widely in the field including four single-authored books, several books in which he edited contributions, as well as reports commissioned by UK Government Departments, the Congress of the United States, UNESCO and NATO. He has written and presented television programmes and regularly lectures internationally. He is a consultant to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Science Foundation in the USA, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Stockholm. His latest book “Researching Design Learning”, (with Prof Kay Stables) was been published by Kluwer/Springer in 2007.