Associated partners & Scientific Advisor
The project ROBIN is based on an research and teaching collaboration between University of West Bohemia (UWB) and the Tizard Centre at the University of Kent, UK. The Tizard Centre is one of the leading academic centres in the World focousing on the well-being and inlusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The centre is part of the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, a highly rated centre of research excellence in the UK.
The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a semi-collegiate public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university has its main campus north of Canterbury.
The Main Entrance | University of Kent
The Tizard Centre is represented in our collaboration by Professor Julie Beadle-Brown. In addition her work in the UK. Julie is Professor in Disability Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and honorary Professor at the School of Psychology at University College Dublin, Ireland. Until 2016 she has been responsible for running the Comparative Policy and Practice special interest research group of IASSIDD. These positions, in Addition to her international research and consultancy work (e.g in Norway, Canada, USA, and Poland), means that she brings many further opportunities for future international coperation and collaboration.
In terms of practical experience, Prof. Beadle-Brown has researched and practiced in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities for almost 30 years, with a particular focus on improving the quality of life of people with disabilities and on the design and quality of services. She has played a lead role in international research projects focusing on deinstitucionalisation and community living. She is also one of the developers of person-centred active support - an approach that will be used with staff in services as part of ROBIN study. She has particular experience in quantitative methodologies and analysis, having designed some of the measures to be used, and thus will complement the qualitative experince of the research team.