The BRAIN Project, with the full name Barriers and drivers regarding adult education, skills acquisition and innovative activity, is funded by The Norwegian Research Council, under the programme Research and Innovation in the Educational Sector (FINNUT) for the period 2014 – 2017.
A central objective is the application of PIAAC data to conduct international comparisons on different aspects of adult learning. The primary objective is to increase the understanding of the conditions that lead to a high level of learning in the adult population, by empirically looking at the interrelationship between different modes of learning, characteristics of work organisations and institutional framework conditions in selected north European countries. The project aims at contributing to an explanation of seemingly puzzling findings at the national level concerning adult skills, participation in adult learning and the rate of innovation in firms/organisations.
Four countries participating in the PIAAC survey are selected for in-depth studies: Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands and Norway. The project is organized as four sub-projects: 1) Skills levels and skills acquisition, 2) Participation in adult learning, 3) Training, skills and innovation, and 4) Learning processes in enterprises – ‘virtuous-circle’ organisations. The fourth project uses mainly qualitative data, whereas the first mentioned three projects use quantitative data, mainly PIAAC data. In addition, a PhD-project called ‘Drivers and barriers in adult education: How and why are there differences among workers in various industries?’ is connected to the project.
The project involves participation by a group of researchers at NIFU, international scholars and different institutions, national as well as international.
Partners and Researchers
In addition to the research group at NIFU, the project has a national partner at the University of Stavanger, Norwegian Reading Centre, represented by Associate Professors Kjersti Lundetræ and Egil Gabrielsen. They are responsible for the sub-project ‘Skills levels and skills acquisition’.
The international partners in the project are Professor Rolf van der Velden, The University of Maastricht; Professor (Associate) Richard Desjardins, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies; and Senior Researcher Jouni Nurmi / Professor Osmo Kivinen at the University of Turku/ Research Unit for the Sociology of Education – RUSE. Associated with the project as an adviser is also Professor Edward Lorenz at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis.