The Polytechnic Institute of Porto (PP) is the Portuguese polytechnic institution with the highest number of students, teachers, degree courses and schools. It includes about 20,000 people studying, teaching and doing research in its eight Schools, developing 56 undergraduate programs and 62 master degrees, in areas that cover the different fields of Education, Health, Science and Technology, Engineering, Management, Arts.
The Support Unit for Inclusive Schools (UAEI) is a Research Center within the Special Education and Inclusion Department of the ESE-IPP, created in 2004. The UAEI aims to support educational services in the inclusive process of children and youth with additional support needs, by :  (1) developing in-service training for all educational agents: parents, teachers, and education professionals, approaching themes related to the assessment of behavior and functioning profiles; the design of educational responses, including the design of Individualized Education Programs for children with special education needs;  Screening and Implementing Assistive Devices to improve children participation in their daily routines; (2) providing consultancy to schools,  services and institutions providing support for ensuring inclusion and equality for most vulnerable children and youth; (3) developing and cooperating in research projects and disseminate scientific knowledge about education, specifically, special education; (4) disseminating and implementing the Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment and Intervention Models (developed by Tony Linder), to promote children development – in sensorio-motor, cognitive, language and communication and social-emotional domains – in their natural contexts (e.g. home and school).
 The School of Education also hosts the Centre for Research and Innovation in Education (inED), which congregates researchers from different interrelated knowledge domains contributing to the systematic study of education. Some of the topics covered by the researchers are early childhood education, teacher education, social education and social challenges, special needs and inclusion.