The special focus of LIMERIC is on

• language learning and acquisition in early-years pedagogy
• intercultural competences and awareness

For this main aim, a number of sub-aims are defined and will be achieved in the project, such as

• development of methodological / didactical guidelines
• test implementation of the training programme for extra-institutional childhood care workers (also volunteers)
• dissemination and strategy development

The LIMERIC project includes the following target groups:

• people active and working in extra-institutional childhood education and care systems in the partner countries and beyond
• organisations and associations representing the interests of extra-institutional childcare services
• children of immigrant families having the need for support in the phase of bilingual language acquisition
• public institutions wanting to improve the quality of services for and to support social inclusion of immigrant families and from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Based on the needs-analysis framework presented by the English partner (University of Wales), the partnership has started working on collecting data for a state-of-the-art report.

The project's partner institutions come from the seven partner countries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Italy, Turkey, and England. The project is supported by the European Commission as a Grundtvig Multilateral Project, with a duration of two years, January 2012 to December 2013.