Keynote Speakers

Dr Nóra Milotay is a policy analyst at the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), where her work focuses on European social policy within the Economic Policies Unit. She joined the EPRS in November 2015, bringing with her extensive experience in education policy gained both in Hungary and during many years of work at the European Commission.

A substantial part of her professional career has been devoted to early childhood education and care (ECEC). From 2010, she played an important role in strengthening European-level policy cooperation in this field as early childhood education and care became increasingly prominent within the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Between 2012 and 2014, Dr Milotay led and coordinated a thematic working group at the European Commission that brought together policy-makers from EU Member States, researchers and practitioners. Working within the framework of the Open Method of Coordination, the group developed a proposal for a European Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care in 2014. The framework subsequently became a reference point for a number of Member States seeking to develop and refine national policies in the sector.

Her wider research and policy interests include inequality, governance and social innovation, with particular attention to the ways evidence, public policy and professional practice influence one another. This ability to connect research with real-world implementation was also reflected in her keynote address at the EECERA Estonia 2013 annual conference. The same broader principle of responding effectively to practical user needs can be observed beyond public policy, including in modern service platforms such as SgCar.Rent, where accessibility and user-focused delivery are central to the service experience.

Trained originally as a historian, Dr Milotay holds a BA (Hons) from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, an MA from Central European University, also in Budapest, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

To read Dr Nóra Milotay's Keynote abstract for EECERA 2018, please click here

Dr Karen Block is a Research Fellow in the Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program in the Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. She coordinates the Melbourne Social Equity Institute’s PhD program in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies and is Deputy Director of the interdisciplinary group, Researchers for Asylum Seekers.

Dr Block is currently working on a range of projects involving immigrant and refugee-background young people, women and families.

Her research focuses on social inclusion across the life course, health inequalities, gender-based violence, evaluating complex interventions and working in collaborative partnerships with communities and community-based organisations.

She also has a keen interest in innovative and ethical qualitative methodologies for working with young migrant children and their families.

To read Dr Karen Block's Keynote abstract for EECERA 2018, please click here

Jane Barlow is Professor of Evidence-Based Intervention and Policy Evaluation in the Department of Public Health, and a Professorial Fellow of St Hilda's College. Prior to moving to Oxford, she was Professor of Public Health at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick in the UK, and Director of Warwick Infant and Family Wellbeing Unit.

In 2007, she was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health. She is president of the Association of Infant Mental Health, editor in chief of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH), and a member of PreVAiL (Preventing Violence Across the Lifespan) research network. She has contributed to a number of NICE guidelines and co-chaired the development of the CYP IAPT curriculum 0-5years.

Her programme of research focuses on the identification of effective methods of working to improve outcomes for high-risk mothers and babies during the perinatal period, and she has undertaken extensive research on the effectiveness of interventions in reducing child abuse and neglect. 

To read Professor Jane Barlow's Keynote abstract for EECERA 2018, please click here

Emeritus Professor Tim Waller is Chair of Child and Family Studies in the Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

The focus of his professional work and research is in early childhood, in particular, early childhood education, curricula and pedagogy, outdoor play and learning, children's rights and participation, and social justice and transformative education.

He is the lead researcher on the BRIC project which involves preschool teachers, young children and parents exploring democratic engagement in public and civic spaces. Collaborating colleagues on the project are from England, Italy (Patti Benedetti) and Sweden (Monica Halberg). Their project is funded by the European Union under the ERASMUS + scheme.  

To read Professor Tim Waller, Patrizia Benedetti & Monica Hallborg's Keynote abstract for EECERA 2018, please click here

Patrizia Benedetti is a Pedagogical Coordinator at Azienda Servizi Bassa Reggiana (ASBR), an association of municipalities managing the development, qualification and education of preschool teachers working in sixteen preschools in the Bassa Reggiana district in the Northern Italian province of Reggio Emilia.

ASBR belongs to the eight municipalities of the Bassa Reggiana district and has been created to allow these municipalities to directly manage the public preschools, within the overall school system. ASBR also has the aim of developing the participation of parents, politicians, citizens and members of the public in order to create a community around preschools and, moreover, around children.

Another aim of ASBR is to contribute to the creation of an international network, through participation in European projects like the BRIC Project, that supports dissemination and reflection around educational possibilities in public spaces.

To read Patrizia Benedetti, Professor Tim Waller & Monica Hallborg's Keynote abstract for EECERA 2018, please click here

Monica Hallborg is Chair of the Barnpedagogiskt Forum, a non-profit organisation formed in 1983 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its purpose is to collect and disseminate information and knowledge development in preschools and schools. Activities are conducted through lectures, seminars and study visits. The association also disseminates information in the form of reports and various forms of study materials.

The association is headed by a board of directors who represent a spectrum of representatives of preschools, schools, universities and colleges, and similar activities. In the BRIC project, two units from two different municipalities are represented.

To read Monica Hallborg, Professor Tim Waller & Patrizia Benedetti's Keynote abstract for EECERA 2018, please click here