Basque International Research Association (Spain)
Basque International Research Association (BIRA) is a non-profit and non-political interdisciplinary association of scholars, professionals and experts in several fields created to promote and reinforce scientific research and training within social projects with a direct impact on society. The objectives of the association are: building partnerships between national and international entities through the design of research and transfer projects; carrying out studies of a social, educational, technological or scientific nature corresponding to different areas of knowledge; training professionals in formal and nonformal education to adequately develop interventions; creating teaching materials and programs that correlate with scientific research; developing information, training, orientation and advisory services to educational institutions, social entities and organizations, measuring the impact of scientific research within society and other fields and carrying out tasks oriented to disseminating scientific knowledge and project results.
The members of the association are experts in qualitative and quantitative research and new technologies applied to research and education, are experienced facilitators specialized in formal and non-formal education and have broad experience in teachers´ and professionals´ training in vulnerable contexts. Most of the members have extensive experience leading international projects and have co-edited several books on socio-educative inclusion, educational innovation and ICT co-authoring multiple articles on these topics in scientific journals of international impact. BIRA has a broad international network in the areas of social and educational inclusion, mediation and ICT, artificial intelligence, software and system engineering and its members have acted as consultants on the use of new technologies for developing and supporting on-line communities and tools for the training of teachers, students, parents and professionals. BIRA´s target groups are people who differ in gender, ethnicity, religion, lifestyle, experience and education level, and have different cultural and economic backgrounds.
BIRA is also focused on people with fewer possibilities, and it works at a local, regional, national and international level. The main fields of work are scientific research, information and dissemination work, impact analysis, formal and non-formal education, mediation and training in different fields. In addition, BIRA organizes every year two international conferences on topics related to social and educational inclusion, new technologies and other research lines. Hundreds of experts and stakeholders attend these conferences every year. Thanks to these international events, BIRA fosters a great impact and dissemination strategy thanks to which thousands have access to state-of-the-art scientific knowledge in different fields.
The congresses are the following:
- International Congress on Social and Educational Inclusion – CIISE
- International Congress on New Technologies and Education – CINTE
