ECDP kick off meeting, Manchester 29th and 30th January 2018

In late January 2018 a team of European researchers and expert advisers gathered in Manchester to kick off the European Cohort Development Project (ECDP).  The aim of ECDP is to create a scientific specification and business case for a European Research Infrastructure that will provide, over the next 25 years, comparative longitudinal survey data on child and young adult well-being. The infrastructure will subsequently coordinate the first Europe wide cohort survey, which we name EuroCohort.

The aim of developing the infrastructure for EuroCohort is realised within ECDP through the following three objectives:

1. Building support from key political policy makers with a brief which covers child well-being as well as national funding agencies tasked with infrastructural spending on science and survey data collection
2. Develop a scientifically excellent research design
3. Establish a robust operational framework that will ensure the logistic integrity of EuroCohort.

The project plan was the main agenda for the ECDP kick-off meeting in Manchester at which all consortium team leaders were present. In addition to the consortium of researchers ECDP is advised by international experts from the Jacobs Foundation, UNICEF, EuroChild and The Learning and Well-Being Foundation.

During the proceedings, each aspect of the project was detailed to the consortium as a whole and the discussion confirmed out collective commitment to making EuroCohort a success.