Aboutus

NUBU develops, implements and evaluates interventions for children and young people with serious and complex difficulties, their families and schools so that they can receive the best possible help. The measures must be research-based, relevant, individually tailored and effective.

NUBU has a national responsibility for research and development work in the field of vulnerable children and young people, as well as for making knowledge available to the field of practice. The center conducts professional and knowledge development at an international level.

NUBU's most important target group is vulnerable children and young people and their families. NUBU works primarily with and through professionals who meet children, young people and their families every day. That is why state and municipal childcare and other services for children, young people and families are also NUBU's target group. Relevant research communities, decision-makers and authorities are also important target groups and partners.

In the 1990s, the Norwegian Child Welfare Services experienced an increasing number of enquiries that had serious behavioural problems as the reason for the enquiry.

In 1997, the Research Council of Norway was commissioned by the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion to arrange an expert conference on "Children and young people with serious behavioural difficulties". The reason for this was that the Child Welfare Services was experiencing an increasing number of enquiries about children with behavioural problemsin the form of e.g. serious, repeated crime and substance abuse.

An expert group associated with the conference was to recommend approaches to prevent and treat behavioural problems among children and adolescents, based on the knowledge that emerged during the conference. Following the recommendation of the expert group, it was decided to create a project called the Behaviour Project.

The Behaviour Project was established in 1999 and all 19 counties at the time accepted an invitation from two ministries for national implementation of Parent Management Training (PMTO) and Multisystemic Therapy (MST). The initiative was interdepartmental and was taken by the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Ministry of Justice, respectively.

In 2003, the Behaviour Project was established as a research and development center affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo. The center was named the Behaviour Center - Norwegian Center for Studies of Problem Behaviour and Innovative Practice (Atferdssenteret - Norsk senter for studier av problematferd og innovativ praksis AS) and was part of Unirand AS. In 2017, the center changed its name to the National Development Center for Children and Youth (Nasjonalt utviklingssenter for barn og unge – NUBU). In 2019, the center went from being owned by the University of Oslo to being a subsidiary owned by the research institute NORCE.

NUBU's Strategy for 2022 - 2026 includes the center's vision and values, as well as four focus areas with associated strategic objectives.

NUBU's vision is to create better development opportunities for vulnerable children and young people.

NUBU's values:

• Innovative
• Research-based
• Inclusive

The organizational strategy sets out how NUBU will work through four focus areas.

NUBU's focus areas:

• Reach out to more children, youth and families
• Initiative and knowledge development
• Be a premise provider for professional and service development
• Invest in expertise

Download NUBU's organizational strategy in Norwegian.