Early childhood development research
The project INECHD(opens in new window) (International network for early childhood health development) brought together partners from Europe, North America and South America to extend research and bring about knowledge transfer. Their main objective was to facilitate future research collaborations among these researchers on childhood development. Programme leaders have extensive experience in longitudinal studies and international collaboration. Through staff exchanges, partners were able to share data from large population-based longitudinal studies and experimental interventions. They also planned new studies and developed the web-based Early Childhood Encyclopedia. The Encyclopaedia should aid in sharing best practices with service providers and policymakers in four European community languages: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. During the last two years of funding, South American researchers focused on planning longitudinal studies and evaluating early childhood interventions. Areas of interest included early health and social adjustment problems. Another important project outcome was completion of the report 'Early developmental trajectories of health related behaviours and their risk factors'. An internal meeting on models of early childhood services was also organised with presenters from Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Over 35 staff exchanges were organised and more than 50 papers by early-career researchers were published in high-impact scientific journals. A research proposal was presented and successfully funded in Brazil. Moving forward, the participating countries will continue to collaborate and share knowledge. Project activities should have long-term impact and results should enrich the European community as a whole.
