Study Overview

Project Youth is a major new study, supported by over £60 million in funding from the UK Government through UK Research and Innovation. It will explore how children and teenagers change as they grow up and help us to understand the many things that affect their health and wellbeing.

Project Youth aims to recruit 100,000 volunteers aged 8-18 years from across the UK and follow their health and wellbeing for at least 10 years.

We plan to collect information from volunteers in several ways. These will include questionnaires, measurements, biological samples (such as saliva), and information from their health, education and other records.

How we are planning the study

We’re still planning the study and have not started recruiting volunteers yet. We’re first speaking to young people, parents, carers and experts to find out how best to carry out this ambitious project.

We’re working with a small number of schools to see how the study might work in a school setting. In 2027, we will carry out a small pilot study before study volunteers can start joining Project Youth.

We’re also looking at ways to make sure the study includes young people from different communities and backgrounds, and from different parts of the UK.

Ethics, consent and confidentiality

All health research must follow clear rules to protect the volunteers who take part. These rules need extra special care when the volunteers are children and young people.

Experts, young people and their families are helping us to think through how we will follow those rules. These include how we will keep young people safe and protect their privacy. We’re also thinking about how young people can give their consent to take part in the study, and how parents and carers should be involved.

The study will store all information securely and never share details that would allow our volunteers to be identified. Only approved researchers will be able to use the information, and only for research that benefits the public.