The Polytechnic Institute of Porto (P.PORTO), the coordinating partner of the PBS-ECEC project, is one of the largest higher education institutions in Portugal. The School of Education of P. Porto is oriented towards education, research and service to the community, offering a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs (e.g., Master in Preschool Education), a joint doctoral degree in Education (w/ University of Santiago de Compostela) and Continuing Education Programs for several professionals, such as preschool teachers. The Centre for Research and Innovation in Education is a FCT research centre (UIDB/05198/2020) and follows the strategic vision and mission of ESE in teaching, education and social intervention. It intends to contribute to the construction, dissemination, and sustainability of declarative, procedural and situational knowledge in Education Sciences in 4 areas: Teacher Education & Training; Special Education and Inclusion; Culture, Art, and Education; Society Challenges and Education. In recent years, inED’s researchers have participated in several European projects directly connected with pre-school education and positive behaviour support systems (e.g., BECERID, BASE, BEHAVE, PARTICIPA).

The International Hellenic University (IHU) – the 3rd largest University in Greece – has its headquarters in Thessaloniki. It was formed, based on Law 4610/2019 (Government Gazette 70/Α’/07-05-2019), by the merger of the International Hellenic University with three other higher education institutes. IHU has educational and administrative facilities in eight cities of Northern Greece, with 7 Schools and 32 Departments in subjects and fields that meet the requirements of a modern university, offering more than 50 postgraduate study programs (22 in English). The total number of students are approximately 50000 and educational staff are around 600 people in total (permanent, associates etc.). 

The research activity of the university is important with particular emphasis on national and European financial frameworks. Research actions include several NSRF projects and INTERREG transnational partnerships as well as European frameworks such as Erasmus+ KA3, HORIZON 2020 and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. The specific research interests of the Department of Early Childhood Education & Care (ECEC) focuses: a) on the development and implementation of innovative early childhood education curriculum and their effects on children’s and early caregivers and educators’ development, b) on the evaluation of teaching practices and methods through observation of early childhood classrooms, c) on the evaluation of the quality of early childhood setting, and d) on the development of the professional qualifications of early childhood caregivers and educators. The ECEC department of IHU has led several European funded projects in the field of early childhood research and education.

ICEP Europe is an independent training and research institute providing online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and University-validated programmes for educators, youth workers, psychologists, and allied professionals. Specialising in psychology and special education, all of our courses are developed and taught by leading practitioners in their fields and meet the highest international standards. As an independent educational and research institute, we have trained over 25,000 teachers across 60 countries since 2001. ICEP Europe is committed to excellence in education. Our dedicated staff and innovative online learning environment allows us to deliver quality education that makes a difference.

ICEP Europe have a proven track record in the development, management and implementation of transnational EU-funded research programmes. Through our involvement in these programmes we have developed multiple training packages for practitioners working with children and young people and have established a strong network of research partners. We specialise in the area of development, health and wellbeing, trauma-informed practice, inclusion, special educational needs and positive psychology. At ICEP Europe our mission is to develop evidence-based solutions to societal challenges which are grounded in education, social justice, equity and inclusion. We seek to promote the implementation of psychological theory and research to ensure inclusive and quality education and to support and enable the resilience and well-being of educators and students to thrive.

The IoD is an organization established 2003 with a vision to contribute to the improvement of the society’s quality of life through the continuous development of the individual, the family, and the human resources of business and educational organizations. The Institute promotes resilience, sense of wellbeing, mindfulness, mental health, and a positive outlook to life, the boost of creative skills, increasing performance, resilience to stress and experience of happiness. It has considerable know-how and expertise in the design and offering of training opportunities on the fields of teacher empowerment and wellbeing, self‐awareness, self-esteem, emotional intelligence, stress management, cooperative learning, values and creative thinking, life and employability skills, positive psychology applications, career guidance.