For more than forty years, Umeå University - inaugurated in 1965 and situated far to the north of Sweden - has exceeded all expectations and proven itself as an important regional, national and international entity. Today, there are courses and study programmes in every academic field. With approximately 29,000 students and 4000 employees, the university has much experience in the area of communications between subject-fields, interdisciplinary thinking, with new approaches and perspectives in mind. Apart from the six university colleges at Umeå University, 22 research centres have been established offering interdisciplinary research, which are utilized by the many internationally successful and highly respected researchers from the university. The Faculty of Teacher Education is the youngest of the faculties at Umeå University. It was created to develop teacher education and research into educational work as an academic discipline. Approximately 3000 students and 160 lecturers and researchers are currently active at the Faculty of Teacher Education.
The research group UMSER – Umeå University Science Education Research - was established in 2006 and involves several different departments at Umeå University. This research environment creates opportunities for people from different departments, who in one way or the other are involved in science education research, to meet both formally and informally. The researchers all bring in different perspectives and traditions which creates a vivid environment. There are a number of research projects in investigate the interaction between interest, motivation and learning in science.
Role in the Project: Drawing on their experience of successfully developing national in-service networks, UmU will lead WP4; in-service teacher training, while also contributing to the development of biology-related IBSE teaching and learning units (WP1-5).