Understanding the learning impacts of informal science settings is a topical and challenging issue. Learning in such places has been under-researched and under-theorised, hampering the field’s ability to address policy and broader concerns around impact. Initiatives from within the sector have begun to address these issues. In the United Kingdom, King’s College London has been running a series of seminars to develop a learning research agenda for natural history museums. Other informal science institutions have started to develop learning research centres in order to establish a culture of research-led practice. In this session, researchers and practitioners will outline current movements they are undertaking and participants will be invited to discuss how these relate to their own organisations.