A boutique research & software development company

Our Heritage

PRIMER software has its roots in the successful collaboration of a uniquely insightful statistician (Bob Clarke) with ecologists (Richard Warwick, John Field and others), especially those working at the Institute for Marine Environmental Research (IMER) in the UK, which was renamed Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in 1988. The first widely available DOS version (PRIMER v4) became available from 1993. In 2000, PRIMER-E Limited was founded by Professor K. Robert (‘Bob’) Clarke, Cathy Clarke and Ray Gorley, a spin-out enterprise of PML. In 2008, Marti J. Anderson (then at University of Auckland, New Zealand) joined forces with Ray and Bob to produce PERMANOVA+, an add-on package to PRIMER v6.

In 2016, PRIMER-E transferred its business activities to Quest Research Limited (trading as PRIMER-e) under the sole directorship of Professor Marti J. Anderson (New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study at Massey University, Auckland).

PRIMER / PERMANOVA+ software is now well-established in research laboratories, public and private companies and institutions in over 132 countries worldwide.