Research centers and labs

In addition to 9 academic departments, the college houses more than 20 collegewide and nationally designated research and service centers. The centers and labs integrate the college's teaching, research, and outreach missions as well as provide a programmatic and financial framework for graduate student research.
 

To jump directly to a specific center, click on the letter below:
 C |  D  |   F   |   I  |  M  |  N  |  P  |  R  |   T
 

Labs are listed at the bottom on the page.
collegewide interdisciplinary centers are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)

CARLA supports a number of coordinated programs of research, training, development, and dissemination of information related to second language teaching, learning, and assessment. CARLA houses one of nine National Language Resource Centers, whose role is to improve the nation’s capacity to teach and learn foreign languages effectively.
(612-626-8600, www.carla.umn.edu)

Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW)

CASCW is the premiere source of child welfare information and training in Minnesota. In close collaboration with the MN Department of Human Services and other public child welfare agencies, CASCW identifies, assesses and disseminates effective child welfare practice information.
(612-624-4231, cehd.umn.edu/ssw/cascw/)

Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) *

CAREI's mission is to improve the quality of education for all learners through neutral, rigorous research and evaluation of educational contexts and initiatives. A sample list of projects includes all-day kindergarten, block scheduling, Learning from Leadership (a Wallace Foundation Study), and quality compensation program (Q Comp).
(612-624-0300, cehd.umn.edu/CAREI)

Center for Cognitive Sciences

The Center for Cognitive Sciences is an interdisciplinary research center that serves as the foundation for research in the cognitive sciences at the University of Minnesota; its members represent 14 University departments and six colleges.
(612-625-9367, www.cogsci.umn.edu)

Center for Early Education and Development (CEED) *

The Center for Early Education and Development links the University's resources with those who serve children and families. CEED facilitates communication among University colleagues around research and professional issues in early education and development and provides increased training opportunities for practitioners.
(612-625-3058, cehd.umn.edu/CEED)

Center for Neurobehavioral Development (CNBD)

The Center for Neurobehavioral Development houses over thirty studies that investigate the developing human brain and its relation to normal and abnormal behavioral development. The CNBD is committed to collaborative research, drawing faculty and students from the departments of Pediatrics, Neuroscience, Psychology and the Institute of Child Development.
(612-624-5626, www.umn.edu/cnbd)

Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA)

CIERA is a consortium of universities involved in working towards improving the reading achievement of America’s children by generating and disseminating theoretical, empirical, and practical solutions to persistent problems in the learning and teaching of beginning reading. The University of Minnesota is home to the largest CIERA project, which involves a longitudinal study on school reform in reading in high poverty schools across the United States.
(612-625-0169, www.ciera.org)

Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy (CRDEUL) *

CRDEUL offers professional development activities, facilitates grant development, conducts research, and coordinates outreach projects to support underrepresented and underserved students in college and in transition.
(www.cehd.umn.edu/CRDEUL)

Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking (CRJP)

CRJP was established to provide technical assistance, training, and research to support restorative justice dialogue, practice and principles. Since its inception in 1994, CRJP programs have reached over 6,000 participants and its training materials and publications are in worldwide demand.
(612-624-4923, rjp.umn.edu)

CitySongs

Funding from a variety of public and private sources makes this a true collaboration between the University and the community. Although CitySongs takes the form of after-school popular music youth choirs, it is far more than that. CitySongs social work staff also provides social service, educational, and cultural sensitivity activities to promote positive youth development.
(612-626-1241, citysongs.umn.edu)

Cooperative Learning Center

The Cooperative Learning Center was created to develop and refine theory of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts and conflict resolution. Staff are engaged in programmatic, long-term research to validate the theories. Center staff use the validated theory to develop practical procedures to be used in classrooms, schools, and other settings. The practical procedures include cooperative learning, school-based decision making, academic controversy, decision-making controversy, conflict resolution, and peer mediation. Center staff developed and maintains a national and international network of educational and training institutions that are using cooperative learning, the cooperative school, controversy, and peacemaking procedures on a long-term basis.
(612-624-7031, www.co-operation.org)

Demonstrating Progress Monitoring for Early Identification, Accountability and Success: A Model Demonstration Center on Progress Monitoring (DPM)

DPM develops, implements, and evaluates a response-to-intervention model to measure children’s progress toward school-readiness and academic goals in a seamless manner from preschool through elementary years for students in both special and regular education. Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, it is a collaborative effort between the Institute on Community Integration and the Minneapolis Public Schools.
(612-624-9893)

Family Caregiving Center

The Family Caregiving Center is dedicated to improving dementia care by supporting family centered care.
(612-624-9424, cehd.umn.edu/FSoS/projects/fcc.html)

Institute on Community Integration (ICI) *

The Institute on Community Integration is a federally-designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities that carries out research, training, consultation, and information sharing on disability issues across the lifespan. At the heart of the work of its 80-plus projects and 6 affiliated centers is the mission to support the full participation of persons with intellectual, developmental and other disabilities, and those at risk, in all areas of community living. It carries out that mission across the country and abroad by improving community services, professional practices, and government policies, as well as re-shaping societal attitudes. Its core support is through the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (612-624-6300, ici@umn.edu, ici.umn.edu)

Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC)

IDVAAC serves as an interdisciplinary clearinghouse and forum for scholars, practitioners, and observers of family violence in the African American community. With U.S. Department of Justice support and collaborative assistance from a vast network of communities nationwide, the Institute studies the problem from the ground up, conducting community forums, reviewing service delivery and intervention mechanisms, and tabulating pioneering data, toward its goal of identifying appropriate and effective ways to prevent and reduce family violence in the African American community. Primary operating support comes via a grant from the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
(612-624-5357, www.dvinstitute.org)

Minnesota Center Against Violence & Abuse (MINCAVA)

MINCAVA was established to support research, education, and access to violence related resources. The center is home to several innovative programs addressing violence and abuse and houses one of the most comprehensive, widely-used resources about violence on the Internet today. Other projects linked through MINCAVA's home page include an internationally recognized research project on the link between child maltreatment and woman battering, and a Web site devoted to providing law, criminal justice, advocacy, and social service professionals with up-to-date information on interventions to stop violence against women.
(612-624-0721, www.mincava.umn.edu)

Minnesota Center for Reading Research (MCRR) *

The Minnesota Center for Reading Research conducts applied research on reading and research on teaching approaches that facilitate reading instruction. The focus is on conducting research that supports teachers, particularly those who teach students of poverty, as they learn to effectively teach children and youth from diverse backgrounds, to become competent readers in K-12 school settings.
(612-624-9147, cehd.umn.edu/reading)

Minnesota Postsecondary Education Research Institute (Minnesota-PERI)

The Minnesota Postsecondary Education Research Institute was created in 1999 to raise public awareness of critical policy issues in postsecondary education, critique existing and proposed policies, foster better understanding of policy implications, and facilitate discussions about policy development through its research and dissemination activities.
(612-625-0773, www.cehd.umn.edu/PERI)

National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO)

The National Center on Educational Outcomes provides nationwide leadership for the participation of students with disabilities in national, state, and district assessments; standards-setting efforts; and graduation requirements. It addresses related topics such as accommodations, alternate assessments, reporting and accountability, research, technical assistance provision, networking of funded assessment research projects, and information dissemination. NCEO is funded primarily by the Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, and is one of the affiliated centers of the college’s Institute on Community Integration.
(612-626-1530, cehd.umn.edu/NCEO)

National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET)

The National Center on Secondary Education and Transition focuses on improved access and success for students with disabilities in secondary and postsecondary education, as well as in employment, independent living, and community participation. Activities include training, application and dissemination of research conducted elsewhere, and technical assistance to organizations and agencies. It is one of the affiliated centers of the college’s Institute on Community Integration.
(612-624-1489, www.ncset.org)

North Central Regional Resource Center (NCRRC)

The North Central Regional Resource Center seeks to improve education results for children and youth with disabilities through state-level systems change. It provides technical assistance and dissemination support to state and local education agencies in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as they engage in systems change efforts that improve educational results and accountability for young people with disabilities and their families. The NCRRC is one of six Regional Resource Centers (RRCs) funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), and is one of the affiliated centers of the college’s Institute on Community Integration.
(612-624-9722, rrfcnetwork.org/ncrrc)

Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment (PARA)

The Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment engages in research on and development of accessible reading assessments that provide a valid demonstration of reading proficiency for increasingly diverse populations of students in our public schools, and particularly for those students who have disabilities that affect reading. It is operated by a consortium consisting of the National Center on Educational Outcomes; the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA; and Westat. It is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education as a part of the National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (NARAP), and is one of the affiliated centers of the college’s Institute on Community Integration.
(612-626-1530, www.readingassessment.info)

Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC)

The Research and Training Center on Community Living engages in research, training, and technical assistance on community living, self-determination, and full citizenship for persons with developmental disabilities. It maintains national databases on services to people with disabilities and individual outcomes; conducts national and state evaluations of policy and services; and is a national leader in direct support workforce development through its College of Direct Support and the CMS National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center. It is the designated center on community integration of persons with developmental disabilities funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education, and is one of the affiliated centers of the college’s Institute on Community Integration.
(612-625-1566, www.rtc.umn.edu)

Research Institute on Progress Monitoring (RIPM)

The Research Institute on Progress Monitoring carries out research on, and development of, a seamless and flexible system of student progress monitoring to be used in K-12 schools across ages, abilities, and curricula. Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, it is an affiliated center of the college’s Institute on Community Integration and a collaborative effort with the college’s Department of Educational Psychology.
(612-624-9893, www.progressmonitoring.net)

Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport

The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport is the first and only center in the country dedicated to examining how sport and physical activity impact the lives of girls and women. The Tucker Center engages in interdisciplinary research, education and community outreach activities designed to have positive, lasting benefits for girls and women, their families and communities.
(612-625-7327, cehd.umn.edu/TuckerCenter)

Labs

Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory

The mission of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL) is to be an open center of excellence for human factors research into the ecology of human-machine systems. The APAL comprises a multidisciplinary team of researchers with extensive academic and industrial research and design experience. The APAL supports both general (i.e. "basic") and specific (i.e. "applied") research relating to perception and performance in virtual environments.
(612-626-7521, cehd.umn.edu/KIN/research/APAL)

Carlson Lab

Our research examines the development of executive function/self-regulation, social understanding, and pretend play/symbolism in young children. Current studies investigate executive function and bilingualism/biculturalism (Spanish-English; Korean-English), measurement tools for executive function in preschoolers, symbolic thought and conscious control of action, emotion regulation, neural correlates of decision-making, parenting and cultural influences on executive function and social understanding, children’s teaching ability as an index of social understanding, and the development of role-play and imaginary companions.
(612-626-3187, Stephanie Carlson)

Cognitive Developmental Neuroimaging Lab

Research in this laboratory explores the development and neurobiological correlates of nondeclarative or implicit learning during the preschool and school age periods. Studies examine stimulus and response factors that constrain learning at different ages and relate these cognitive changes to ongoing brain development.
(612-624-0075, cehd.umn.edu/ICD/CDNLab)

The Crick Social Development Lab
This lab conducts developmental research on the development of relational and physical aggression, development of prosocial behavior patterns, and relational and physical victimization.
(612-624-3347, cehd.umn.edu/icd/SocialDevelopment/)

Gait and Posture Laboratory

The G&P Lab focuses on the study of human postural control and bipedal locomotion using an array of biomechanical tools like force platforms, electrogoniometry, foot pressure sensors, and high speed video analysis. Studies on motor learning, control, and development for different populations are also conducted in laboratory space in the Center for Learning, Perception, and Cognition in Elliott Hall.
(612-625-3313, cehd.umn.edu/KIN/research/gait)

Growth and Development Lab

The research from this lab focuses on children's emotional and behavioral development. Much of it focuses on the influence of pubertal transition on adolescents' emotional and behavioral development. the lab collaborates with researchers at Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), and George Washington University (GWU) to study interaction between biological and psychosocial factors in child development via an adoption project.
(612-625-3952, Xiaojia Ge)

The Gunnar Lab

Research in this lab focuses on the emotional and social processes that regulate physiological responses to stressful events early in childhood.
(612-624-0321, cehd.umn.edu/icd/GunnarLab/)

Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory

The focus of the Human Sensorimotor Control Lab is the neural mechanisms underlying the control of arm movements (i.e., reaching, grasping). The laboratory pursues a research agenda that involves the recording of biomechanical and electrophysiological data of human motion, as well as the modeling of these behaviors using computational models that simulate specific neural control processes. In its quest to understand sensorimotor control, the laboratory has studied the behaviors of young infants, children, adults and patients suffering from cerebellar or basal ganglia disease.
(612-625-3313, cehd.umn.edu/KIN/research/motorlab)

The Karatekin Lab

This lab is interested in investigating cognitive processes in children and adolescents with psychiatric and neurological disorders. This research can lead to a better understanding of the basic nature and normal development of the processes, the neurobiological bases and mechanisms of dysfunction in the disorders, as well as improved treatment options for the children and their families.
(612-626-9891, cehd.umn.edu/icd/KaratekinLab)

The Koenig Lab

Research interests at the lab lie at the interface of social cognition and language development. Current work focuses on the different kinds of information children use to determine the reliability of a message. Other interests include young children’s developing understanding of mental states as expressed in communication as well as how they come to appreciate language as a conventional system.
(612-624-8822, Melissa Koenig)

Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and Exercise Science (LPHES)

The principal research activity of (LPHES) has been the NHLBI HERITAGE Family Exercise Study in its last year of the eight-year multicenter project. Two hundred two-generation families of five or more have completed the study in our lab. Four other universities are involved in this study for a total of about 800 participants. The purpose of the HERITAGE study is to determine the interaction of exercise and genetics on risk factors for coronary heart disease and diabetes.
(612-624-8271 or 612-626-8016, cehd.umn.edu/KIN/research/exercise)

Language and Cognitive Development Laboratory

This lab is concerned with the investigation of cognitive and linguistic development through several features of the Spanish language that differ from English.
(612-624-2856, cehd.umn.edu/ICD/SeraLab/)

Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
Byron Egeland and collaborators conduct a longitudinal study of high-risk children and their families which began in 1975. The aims include determining the antecedents and developmental pathways of child competence and maladaptation.
(612-624-0210, http://cehd.umn.edu/ICD/Parent-Child)

Pellegrini Human Development Lab

Human development students and faculty engage in joint research projects, often resulting in joint publications and presentations as well as dissertations and theses.
(612-624-6083, cehd.umn.edu/edpsych/hdl)

Shirley G. Moore Laboratory Nursery School

The Shirley G. Moore Laboratory Nursery School provides model training experiences for teachers of young children at both graduate and undergraduate levels and serves as an active center of child study and research.
(612-625-6549, cehd.umn.edu/icd/LabSchool)

The Yonas Lab
The work in this lab centers on how infants and preschool children come to perceive the visual world. It isolates the visual information that makes perception possible and explores when in development infants become sensitive to that information. The research has explored various cues to three-dimensional layout of the environment and more recently has investigated how shadows, transparency, and highlights are interpreted by infants.
(612-626-0096, cehd.umn.edu/icd/YonasLab)

The Zelazo Lab
This lab studies the development and neural bases of executive function, or the conscious control of thought, action, and emotion. 
(612-626-2680, cehd.umn.edu/icd/zelazolab/)

* Collegewide interdisciplinary centers are indicated with an asterisk.

March 2008