The ERSA Prize in Regional Science 2017 has been awarded to Professor Roberta Capello, full Professor of Regional Economics at Politecnico di Milano, School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering.

This € 5.000 price awards Professor Roberta Capello’s scientific achievements in urban and regional economics, in particular her work on spatial spillovers and externalities from innovations, knowledge creation and the impacts on urban and regional growth. As an author, Professor Roberta Capello has made a tremendous impact in the field of regional science with her textbook in regional economics, Routledge (2007), and her several books and papers published in refereed journals. The jury acknowledges her outstanding and prolific contributions to the advancement of regional science.

For an entire week, the Spanish and British kindergarten were able to be flies on the wall at Sandvedhaugen kindergarten in Norway. They shadowed their Norwegian colleagues to see how they work, how Norwegian kindergartens operate and to pick up good practices they might bring with them back home and apply in their own kindergartens.

Testing manuals
The secondments were part of the EU project “Enhancing Opportunities for Toddlers’ Wellbeing” (ToWe). The aim is to let more kindergarten employees carry out secondments or “job shadowing” with partner kindergartens from other countries. ToWe is an action research project where the overall objective is to improve the quality of life for toddlers, with a focus on disadvantaged children, to ensure they are given a good start in life and to fulfil their learning potential. The kindergarten teachers who are involved in the project will be able to gain new knowledge. Early childhood education departments from the University of Stavanger, Kingston University in London and Universitat Ramon Lull in Barcelona have together developed a number manuals that kindergarten employees may use to learn more about the wellbeing of children during meals, how they can work with children’s ways of expressing themselves and how they can contribute to language learning for toddlers. The material that has been developed, currently being tested in the partner kindergartens, is available on the ToWe project website. 

Many funny moments
During the job shadowing, the English, Spanish and Norwegian kindergarten teachers participating in the project had some revelations, and there were many moments of insight – including some funny ones. “For me the amount of time spent outdoors in Norwegian kindergartens came as a big surprise. It was also strange to see children sleeping outside in their prams. And I must admit that I was somewhat shocked when one of the kindergarten employees said that everyone had to go out and play in the rain. My response was simply: What? Are we going out now? Isn’t it raining? I was afraid the children would get cold, but that was only until I saw the suits and rain clothing Norwegian children wear. This is not common in Spain”, says Mireia Miralpeix, who works in the kindergarten Escola Bressol Mas Balmanya outside of Barcelona.