The Department of Research and Development supports the research and development projects of members of staff at KPH. It provides individual advice and helps to strengthen the networking of researchers in their teams, of competence centres and cooperative projects. It ensures quality control through research applications, feedback procedures and specific staff development programmes. The cooperation with students and a better coupling of research, teaching and teaching practice are key concerns.

The competence centres at the KPH Vienna/Krems are regarded as opportunities for academic and interdisciplinary discourse and networking, through which new research projects are generated. The key concerns of these centres are subject areas which are of wider importance in initial teacher education, in continuous teacher education and in advanced teacher training.

The main areas include the following:

• Inclusion and Participation
• School design and Architecture
• Teacher Professional Development
• Intercultural and Interfaith Teaching and Learning
• The Pedagogy of Diversity and Recognition
• Human Rights, Children’s Rights and Human Dignity

The Institute of Research & Development provides for individual consultation and networking in interdisciplinary research teams, centres of excellence and (international) projects.
Moreover, four centres of excellence pool the college’s expertise and serve as subject-specific and interdisciplinary hubs of exchange and dialogue for innovative projects. Their activities reflect the college’s interdisciplinary research interests, encompassing all areas of teacher education. 

• Elementary and Primary Pedagogy
• Intercultural, Inter-faith and Interdenominational Learning
• Human Rights Pedagogy
• Didactics of value-based Entrepreneurship