The BBC's governing body is to review the corporation's coverage of news across the UK following devolution.
Researchers from Cardiff University will look at coverage of English local elections and polls in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the BBC Trust.
They will also analyse four weeks of coverage from this autumn.
BBC trustee Richard Tait said the devolution of powers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had presented "new challenges" for the corporation.
"Feedback tells us this is an area that interests many licence fee payers," Mr Tait, who is chair of the trust's editorial standards committee, added of the study, which is looking into the corporation's network news output, aimed at viewers and listeners across the UK.
"This review will consider whether the nations' differing policies - with regard to both devolved policies and other matters - are properly reflected in the BBC's network output and whether the BBC provides appropriate coverage of the actions and policies of the devolved administrations and reaction to them," he said.
Anthony King, professor of government at the University of Essex, will be the independent author of the review, while former BBC news and current affairs programme editor Mike Robinson will act as project director.
It is the first impartiality review to be undertaken by the trust since it was set up in January. It expects to publish the review in the summer.
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