The 1° FRIENDS free seminar entitled “EDUCATION FOR INCLUSION THROUGH QUIET TIME/TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION” was held the 9^th of May at the Auditorium Armando Guebuza of the Lusófona University Library, in Lisbon.

During this public event, schools and institutions participating in the FRIENDS project shared their relevant experiences with the Quiet Time/Transcendental Meditation (QT/TM) implementation in their classrooms.

It was a free event where anyone interested could take part to it, discovering how the Quiet Time /TM innovative approach contributes to foster social inclusion and a positive environment in schools’ settings.

The welcome speech was held by Mr. Figarreiro as representative of the from Ministry of Education of Portugal – Direção Geral de Educação (DGE). This speech was followed by the opening session and introduction to the conference by Fabrizio Boldrini – Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti – Centro Studi Villa Montesca (Italy) as project coordinator of the FRIENDS project.

An important analysis on references on brain research related to the effects of the QT/TM programme was provided by Mr. Ashley Deans - Professor of Education and Physics. All participants showed great interest in getting acquainted of empirical studies and analysis conducted in the field of Transcendental Meditation with an active participation.

Also, the universities that are partners in the project presented and shared with participants preliminary scientific report from the 4 implementing countries (Belgium, Italy, Portugal and UK) of the schools who adopted the QT/TM programme.

Finally, practical guidelines for upscaling the QT/TM Programme in other schools, settings and countries interesting in the implementation of this innovative practice were given by Mr. Alberto Bramanti – Bocconi University (Italy) and Professor Frans Van Assche - University of Leuven (Belgium). Their

Building on policy recommendations coming from previous QT/TM programme implementation (see EUROPE project), outlining future prospectives in order to reach sustainable results during the overall FRIENDS project development.

Discover more about the full agenda of the event, clicking here.