The International Center for the Study of Giftedness (ICBF) is a cooperative research institution of the University of Muenster, Osnabrueck and Nijmegen. The ICBF was founded in 2001 when the three universities agreed to participate in the Network of Euregional Universities (NEU). The universities Muenster and Nijmegen also cooperate in the International Research Universities Network (IRUN).
The aim of the ICBF – supported by the ICBF foundation- is to combine and complement the experience and expertise of the involved universities in the areas of talent research, gifted education, as well as teacher training and further education in the talent support.
The ICBF cooperates with national and international institutions and research organizations; in particular with the Competence Centre for Individual Support North-Rhine-Westphalia (lif) and the University of Nijmegen’s Centre for the Study of Giftedness as well as the University of Osnabrueck’s Research Centre for Gifted Education at the Lower Saxony Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development (nifbe).
The expertise of the ICBF is focused on three major areas with different projects in the field of talent support:
- Talent Research is conducted on the developmental conditions of special talents and the implementation and evaluation of diagnostic tools, counselling approaches and support frameworks for gifted children, adolescents and adults.
- Gifted Education comprises the diagnosis and the promotion of talent, learning skills and personal development of gifted children, adolescents and adults. In addition, it deals with counselling for parents, educators and teachers in a curricular and an extra-curricular context.
- Teacher Training and Further Education is the design and implementation of interdisciplinary and international education as well as training curricula, symposia, conferences and publication series for the research on talent and gifted education.