LEVANTE welcomes first cohort of participating sites to global research network

The Jacobs Foundation is pleased to announce the first cohort of participating sites selected to join the Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE)—its flagship global initiative focused on advancing our understanding of children’s learning variability.

Following a highly competitive call for proposals in August 2024, which attracted 182 applications from around the world, six sites have now been selected to join the LEVANTE network. These sites will collaborate alongside the four existing pilot sites, forming a ten-site network of leading education researchers and institutions dedicated to embedding evidence-based insights into policy and practice.

The six new sites are the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour in the Netherlands, the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany, the University of Calgary in Canada, and the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

They join the four existing pilot sites of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, and Stanford University in the USA.

This marks a major milestone in the growth of LEVANTE and reflects the global demand for research that recognises and responds to the diversity in child development and learning.

Participating sites will collect and contribute data through harmonised methodologies, ensuring high-quality insights that can shape global education systems. Together, these ten institutions represent a powerful coalition advancing equity and inclusion in education.

The selected cohort represents a diverse range of geographic regions and research areas. By participating in LEVANTE, each site will help build a collaborative evidence base and strengthen the ability of education systems to respond to the real-world learning needs of every child.

With this new cohort in place, LEVANTE continues to gain traction ahead of the second call for applications, which is set to launch later this summer. The initiative remains grounded in its mission to make meaningful contributions to developmental and educational research and policy through shared data, shared learning, and shared purpose.