Schools know that kids who can manage their emotions and work well with others do better — in grades, in friendships, and later in life. But most programs that teach these skills sit on a shelf after the training week ends. BOOST figured out how to bake social and emotional learning directly into everyday teaching, so it sticks. They tested it in schools across Poland, Spain, and Norway, and built a complete toolkit — from teacher guides to school-wide rollout plans — so any school can pick it up and run with it.
Student mental health is deteriorating across Europe, and schools are expected to respond — but teachers lack practical tools that fit into their everyday teaching. Most social-emotional learning programs are one-off training events that fade quickly, leaving schools with no lasting impact and wasted budgets.
A complete, tested teacher training approach for building social and emotional skills in students, including a programme tutorial and a service design for school-wide organisational adoption. The project produced 10 deliverables total, with the final BOOST approach as the flagship output — tested across schools in Poland, Spain, and Norway.
If you are an EdTech company looking to differentiate your school platform — BOOST developed a tested teacher training program and service design for integrating social-emotional learning into daily classroom practice. Tested across 3 European countries with a EUR 3,461,907 research investment behind it, this could become a premium module in your platform that schools actually renew.
If you run a network of schools and struggle with student wellbeing outcomes and teacher retention — BOOST created a complete approach including a programme tutorial and organisational development tool, tested in 3 diverse European settings. This gives your schools a proven, structured method instead of ad-hoc wellbeing initiatives.
If you are a youth mental health provider looking for evidence-based prevention programs to offer schools — BOOST's final approach was developed by a 7-partner consortium including psychologists, educators, and economists. The programme was evaluated for both short-term and long-term effects on children's social and emotional wellbeing, giving you credible evidence to present to school buyers.
The project was publicly funded under Horizon 2020 with EUR 3,461,907, and coordinated by SINTEF AS, a Norwegian research organization. As an RIA (Research and Innovation Action), results are typically available under open or negotiated licensing terms. Contact the coordinator for specific pricing and licensing arrangements.
BOOST was deliberately tested in 3 diverse European settings — Poland, Spain, and Norway — specifically to ensure the approach works across different educational and cultural contexts. The final deliverable includes a service design component meant to facilitate scale-up locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
IP from Horizon 2020 RIA projects typically remains with the consortium partners who generated it. SINTEF AS coordinated the project with 7 partners across 4 countries. Licensing terms would need to be negotiated directly with the relevant consortium members.
The project ran for over 5 years (2018–2023) and produced a final tested approach as its key deliverable. The objective states the approach was evaluated for both short-term and long-term effects on children's social and emotional wellbeing, as well as economic benefits. Based on available project data, specific outcome metrics are not included in the summary.
The final BOOST approach includes a programme tutorial and a service design for organisational development — essentially an implementation playbook. This was designed to facilitate uptake in classrooms, schools, and among school administrators. Based on available project data, specific implementation timelines are not stated.
BOOST was developed with input from policy makers alongside teachers, school owners, and researchers to ensure political anchoring. It was tested across 3 European countries with different educational systems. Alignment with specific national curricula would need to be verified per country.
The BOOST approach is designed as a pedagogical method integrated into teachers' existing classroom interaction, not as a standalone software system. The organisational development tool supports school-wide adoption. Based on available project data, no specific technology platform dependencies are mentioned.
The 7-partner consortium spans 4 countries (Belgium, Spain, Norway, Poland) and is entirely research and public-sector driven — 2 universities, 2 research organizations, and 3 other entities, with zero industrial partners and zero SMEs. This is a common profile for health and education research projects, but it means there is no commercial partner already positioned to bring the results to market. The coordinator SINTEF AS is one of Scandinavia's largest independent research organizations, which adds credibility but is not a product company. Any business looking to commercialize this approach would need to negotiate directly with the consortium, and there may be an opportunity precisely because no industry player has yet claimed this space.
SINTEF AS (Norway) — a major Scandinavian research institute. SciTransfer can facilitate a direct introduction to the project team.
Want to explore licensing the BOOST approach for your school network or EdTech platform? SciTransfer can connect you with the right people at SINTEF and the consortium. Contact us for an introduction.
